Leaving Certificate Irish/higher level: Leaving Cert students sitting the higher level Irish paper yesterday encountered an assortment of topical issues ranging from the public's faith in the Garda to the untold story of an Irish-American gangster.

Nine essay choices based on the different genres of debate-writing, news-writing and storytelling were welcomed as topical and comprehensible by Irish teachers yesterday.

Writing articles based on an interview with foreign students, relaying a fictional story on an embarrassing incident and debating the importance of young people protecting the environment provided for wide and varied essays yesterday.

Robbie Cronin, an ASTI subject representative and teacher in Marian College in Ballsbridge, Dublin, said the first Irish paper would have allowed students to concentrate on their writing as opposed to understanding and doubting the meaning of the essay titles.

While a comprehension on "Paddy Whacked: the Untold story of the Irish American Gangster" was described as interesting but difficult, the first comprehension on the SDLP politician Bríd Rogers failed to enthuse students and teachers.

In a generally positive reaction to the Irish paper, teachers however cited some unclear questioning in which students may have actually struggled to identify any answer in the text.

The aural exam, often criticised for being too complex, also proved popular due to the topical conversations on the recent Chernobyl anniversary, the merits of watching Ros na Rún instead of the English soaps and the price of 3G phones.

Donal Ó Loinsigh, a TUI subject representative, said recent Irish higher level papers tended to include long complex sentences which students struggled to understand. Yesterday, however, the language and prose was more simplistic, while questions were more indirect than previous years.

The second of the Irish papers on drama, fiction and poetry starts this morning.