Students toast both success and failure

CELEBRATIONS:AMONG THE girls in stilettos and mini-skirts and the boys with spiked hair celebrating their results last night were the next generation of nurses, psychologists, accountants, forensic scientists, teachers.

Laughter, screams and chatter echoed across the Liffey as a queue of hundreds formed outside Bondi night club and stretched as far as the Ha’penny Bridge.

The reason this spot was so busy was almost unanimous: “€2 a drink and a tenner in,” said Emma Daly of Coláiste Dhulaigh Coolock.

Many of the girls said they had spent “hours” getting ready. With perfect hair and heels, the girls from St Dominic’s Ballyfermot were “delighted”. “I expected loads of Es and Fs but I got Cs and Ds,” said Sarah Casey.

Others took the day easier. “I slept,” said David Cowzer of Drimnagh Castle school. He was ready to celebrate despite failing one subject.

Many of the students were ready for a very late night to celebrate results or forget their disappointments.

Kerrie Eastman from St Joseph’s College Lucan was so delighted with her results she spent “about two hours running around crying”.

Dressed in bright pink, Ashley Murtagh of Pobalscoil Isolde Palmerstown did better than expected and wants to be a primary school teacher.

Girls from the Presentation College Terenure had come to grips with some disappointment as they queued. “I missed by 40 points but I am having some rechecked,” said Róisín Brady who hopes to study psychology at UCD. “I was upset but there’s nothing I can do.”

From the smile on Róisín O’Sullivan’s face it was hard to tell that she missed zoology by two grades. “I was really disappointed; when I saw my parents I broke down,” she said.

As a repeat student, Leila Raisuni had seen it all before and predicted that people would be “crawling the streets by eleven”. She explains that everyone had been drinking before hitting town.

Leila repeated at Rathmines College and when she discovered she got enough points for nursing she “jumped around the street”.