Mystery student gets 11 As in Junior Cert

The Department of Education has said one pupil had achieved a spectacular 11 As in the Junior Certificate results, published yesterday.

A Department spokesman said it had only an exam number and could not even say if the candidate was a boy or a girl.

The Department was able to reveal that while only one person had achieved 11 As, 39 pupils had achieved 10 A grades.

Among the top achievers were a Tallaght, Co Dublin, schoolgirl and a Co Cork schoolboy, who each received 10 A grades.

Caoimhe Egan achieved her maximum results in her Junior Certificate exam sitting 10 subjects and getting straight As.

Caoimhe (15), of Bancroft Park, a pupil of St Mac Dara's Community College, Templeogue, obtained all her As - nine in the subjects she studied within the school, and one extra A in music, for which she studied privately - at higher level.

Caoimhe also scooped the school's prize of £100, which is donated annually to the child who achieves the best results. "We are very pleased with Caoimhe," Mr Seamus McPhillips, principal of St Mac Dara's, said. "We recommend nine subjects and Caoimhe took nine, but because she is also a talented musician she also took music outside the school and she got an A in that too."

And for what is a student with 10 As planning? "I might be interested in medicine" she says, adding quickly that her grades would, of course, have to keep up in the Leaving Certificate.

Also receiving 10 A grades was Brian McCarthy, of Presentation College Cork, a member of the under-15 squad which won the Irish Rowing Championships at Iniscarra, Co Cork this summer.