Reaction: Tallaght Community SchoolAs the students at Tallaght Community School came out from their exam hall, the skies cleared. They looked happy and relieved after sitting their first Leaving Cert exam - English.
It was grand, they said. The difficult part was getting through the night before. They had cups of tea, glasses of orange and one young Leaving Cert student had a drop of brandy to help him relax before he went to sleep.
Yes, the shot of alcohol had worked, said a smiling Gary Byrne (18) when he emerged from his English higher-level exam at 12.30 p.m. yesterday with relief written all over his face.
"I'm very confident," he said. Although he wasn't looking forward to the question on Macbeth in the afternoon, he was looking forward to the poetry questions. "I'm going to do Hopkins if he comes up," he said.
Robert Bannon (18), the school musicals' star and voted the one "most likely to be famous", said he was looking forward to a question on Sylvia Plath, his favourite poet. "I hope she comes up," he said, clutching his good-luck charm, a little furry gorilla named Fernando.
Another Leaving Cert student, David Doherty (18), said the morning's ordinary level English paper had gone very well but, he added "I'm dreading Irish tomorrow". Once the Leaving Cert is behind him, he wants to join the fire brigade.
Clare Duff (18) said the higher-lever paper was "brilliant. It went really well. English is my favourite subject."
Karl Waine (19) said the ordinary paper "went better than I thought. It was too easy," he said, regretting his last minute decision the week before to change from honours to ordinary level. But, he said: "I'm a little bit relieved now I have something done."
After finishing her exam, Therése Fleming (18) was philosophical. "It was as hard as I expected it to be," she said. The youngest of eight in her family to go through the Leaving Cert marathon, she said they are relaxed about the exams at home.
One of the teachers at Tallaght Community School, Mary O'Toole, looked carefully through their exam papers as the students passed through the foyer. "Yes, I'm very concerned that they do well because they work so hard," she said. "I'm delighted now. It's lovely to ease them in to the exams," said O'Toole, who has been a teacher in the school for 21 years.
The younger students were equally upbeat and relieved to have started their Junior Cert. Stephen Morris (15) said personal writing was the toughest section. He wrote a story about what happens next. His story was about aliens landing.
Erin Healy (15) who is also currently sitting her Junior Cert exam, said she was worried the night before "that I hadn't done enough". But yesterday, like most of the students sitting exams this year, she was happy the first paper was finally over.