Students' reaction:Leaving Cert results day is always going to be an emotional occasion.
A troop of 18-year-old girls congregating to open an envelope containing the end product of 14-odd years in the education system is bound to generate a big reaction, but fortunately at Loreto High School Beaufortin Dublin this morning there wasn't a Kleenex in sight, only smiles all round.
"That was a joke, I got 100 points more than what I needed. All that pressure for nothing," beamed Enya de Burca from Rathfarnham who hopes to study international business in DIT.
"There's something that makes you think you're going to fail. You hear thousands people have failed maths and start to worry, but then in the end you don't. It wasn't too hard at all," chirped Ms de Burca's friend Sarah Higgins as they made their way out of the school to commence their celebrations.
Maths has been singled out as a subject at which Leaving Cert students struggle, with almost 5,000 failures in this years exams, and calculators were an important accessory for many of the girls totting up their points today.
However, Loreto principal Liz Cogan said she was delighted with the results of her 94 Leaving Cert students, maths included.
"They're just brilliant. We're happy with maths, English and Irish and everything else across the board. It's great," she said.
Sarah Fitzpatrick from Rathfarnham said she was happy with her 435 points, which she intends to use to study Business Management in DIT, but more so relieved it was all over.
"It's a relief that it's all over. We're going to go out tonight to enjoy ourselves and then a group of us are heading to Zakynthos in Greece to celebrate before college starts."
Over on the north side, identical twins Clara and Eavan Gleeson (18) were in celebratory mood after receiving their Leaving Cert results at Holy Faith Secondary School in Clontarf.
Clara, who studied seven subjects and scored 700 points, was “absolutely thrilled” with her seven A1s while Eavan, who studied eight subjects and scored 790 points, was “shocked, surprised and thrilled” with her seven A1s and an A2 in the eighth subject.
Parents Eileen and Michael who accompanied their daughters to the school were elated.
“I’m thrilled! It was a long haul but we’ve finally got to the end of it and I’m delighted now that they’ve got what they want,” said Eileen.
While Eavan admitted a “healthy but not too competitive” rivalry with her sibling, the twins have competed with each other in the past.
In the recent Chemistry Olympiad Clara was awarded a silver medal and Eavan got a bronze medal.
Despite the hard work invested in the years and months ahead of the examinations, Clara was surprised with her A1 in English while Eavan was similarly surprised at her A1 in German.
The twins were looking forward to a well-deserved night out with their classmates, now that the “nervous and nail-biting” wait - as Clara described it, was over at last.
A Romanian national, who achieved 570 points in her Leaving Certificate examinations today, plans to study science at Trinity College Dublin in the autumn.
Diana Morosan, a student of Plunkett College in Whitehall,Dublin, described her overall results as a "nice surprise".
The student who moved to Ireland two years ago from Suceava in northern Romania achieved three A1 grades in higher level Maths, Biology and Romanian.
Elizabeth Akello from Uganda also sat the Leaving Cert for the first time at the school. She said "I was very nervous coming in; my results still haven't sunk in yet". Ms Akello hopes she will have enough points to study nursing.
The school, which is one of the largest providers of repeat leaving cert courses in Ireland, had more than 100 repeat students this year.
Repeat student John Close of Glasnevin was one of the first students to obtain his results at the school this morning. "I came in early at around 9am to get my results, and they wouldn't give them to me till 10am so it was pretty nerve-wrecking. I'm pretty chuffed though," he said. Mr Close achieved 430 points in the examinations, a jump of 225 points on his Leaving Cert results last year.
Also delighted with his results was Repeat student Sean Kirwan, who scored 370 points. He was especially thrilled with his geography C1 result, as he had to sit the exam shortly after discovering his car had been badly vandalised. "I went out to the carpark after the leaving cert maths exam to discover paint had been thrown over my car, with the tyres slashed and the windows smashed. I then had to go back inside and sit my geography exam," he said.
Mr Kirwan said he failed maths and physics the first time he sat his leaving certificate, so he was thrilled to pass them both this time round, especially considering he scored an A2 in physics.
Gavin Hillick, said he felt "fantastic" with his results; "I expected about 300 points, which I need to study science at UCD, so I was thrilled to discover I'd obtained 385 points". Mr Hillick said the results were a big improvement on last year's total of 90 points, adding "there will be huge celebrations tonight".
The school was not all smiles though. Sean Gibney of Coolock in Dublin said he was disappointed with his results but admitted "I wasn't really approaching the exams too seriously".
Also unhappy with his results was David Parnell from Kilmessan in Co. Meath. He said he had studied very hard for the last year, and commuted a long distance to and from school each day. He said he would consider repeating the examinations for a third time.
Plunkett College principal Kevin O'Mara the results were generally good this year, but admitted that "some students will be disappointed obviously".
