Paper 1 of the Leaving Cert Irish higher exam had something to suit every student, according to teacher Clare Grealy.

Ms Grealy, of Dublin’s Institute of Education, said the paper was broad and varied, with a great choice of essay titles. However, she said she thought the essay dealing with uneasy global political relationships would have been challenging.

“Irrespective of a student’s level of Irish, it required them to have a specific knowledge of world events,” she said.

Other essay titles were: ‘The Housing Crisis in Ireland’, ‘Women in Sport Today’, ‘Changes to Improve Life in Ireland’, and ‘The Pleasure and Pressure a Second-Level Student Has’.

Alternatively, students had their choice of either a story or a debate/speech option.

In the story question, Ms Grealy said: “While students would have understood the seanfhocal ‘Sense Doesn’t Come Before Age’, I wouldn’t be as confident of all students being able to understand the first story title – ‘Fhoiseamh’, meaning relief.”

In the debate, students could argue for or against the topic ‘Young People in Ireland Give Good Care to Their Health’. However, Ms Grealy wondered if some students might have honed in on the word ‘sláinte’, thinking it was in relation to the health service.

Teacher Emer McTiernan said well-prepared students would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss current affairs issues such as the housing crisis, women in sport and uneasy political relationships.

Ms McTiernan – a teacher at Jesus and Mary Secondary School in Enniscrone, Co Sligo – said some students may have chosen to avoid the one on political relationships. However, some may have used that title to discus the issue of Brexit, “naturally a hot topic for students”.

Overall, she described it as an accessible paper for students who were well prepared.

Ms McTiernan, who also works with education and exams website Studyclix.ie, said some students didn’t have a favourable assessment of the listening comprehension test.

“The phrasing of the questions was quite long in some cases and the standard of vocabulary used was also quite high. Many students felt it was a more challenging listening test than what has featured in previous years.”

John Gavin, of the leavingcertirish.com website, said after all the health scandals of recent times, many students were banking on the health system coming up as an essay rather than a debate. He felt that a lot of students would not take the debate option.

Echoing Ms Grealy, he observed that “it wasn’t just the health system, but about young people taking good care of their health, a serious twist. Many would not have prepared for that”.

Mr Gavin said the ordinary-level paper had a very broad range of topics and would have given students the chance to use a lot of the vocabulary they would have learned for the orals.

Tomorrow’s exams, Tuesday, June 11:

Irish, Paper 2; ordinary level  – 9.30am-11.50am

Irish, Paper 2; higher level – 9.30am-12.35pm

Biology; higher and ordinary – 2pm-5pm

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