No rhyme or reason for missing poet but overall mood good

Unlike the chaos of last year, the only drama at this year's exam was provided by a certain William Shakespeare, writes PAMELA DUNCAN

A TOUCH of brain drain was already in evidence at St Vincent’s secondary school in Glasnevin, north Dublin yesterday as the boys “go by in twos and threes” after English Paper 2.

While Kavanagh made an appearance on the paper, Eavan Boland did not, perhaps accounting for the subdued atmosphere among students outside the exam hall who were expecting the poet as a sure-fire option.

Last year’s English 2 paper threw the Leaving Cert into disarray when it was circulated in error in a Co Louth school but despite some shock at Boland’s omission from this year’s paper, there was no such drama this year.

For Jonathan Murphy the non-appearance of the Irish poet had thrown him.

“I was expecting Eavan Boland and so was everybody else. Two years ago there was Adrienne Rich and neither Boland nor Rich were on last year’s paper so people were expecting the probability that it would come up.”

Brian Nolan said the omission of the much-anticipated Irish poet had thrown him somewhat, “but I had an idea about Patrick Kavanagh so I got a good bit written about him” and in general he felt the paper wasn’t too bad.

“I thought it was easy enough in parts . . . the King Lear was all about the betrayal so it was easy enough to do and Wuthering Heights was grand and easy.

“All in all I thought it went well but I’d never do that ever again.”

Others, like Glenn O’Sullivan from Finglas West – were glad that the Irish poet had not come up.

“I was kind of putting all my eggs in one basket for Kavanagh to come up on the poetry and he did, so I was happy enough with that,” he said.

However, he was less taken with the unseen poem which he said was confusing.

“The tone the poet used – there was no definite way to go about it. It was a bit weird the way the questions were asked and all – there was no definitive answer to it.”

Overall he was happy with the paper. “The most important thing I thought was to pace yourself for the questions.

“You know yourself going in that the exam is too long for the questions so you just have to chill out and read over the unseen poem and other parts . . .

There’s a lot of time but there’s a lot of ways to waste it as well.”

Kevin Tyrrell, who took the ordinary level paper scanned the paper to see if the topic he’d hoped for had come up.

“I was basically concentrating on the comparative study and hoping that the theme I wanted would come up. Fortunately for me it did.”

After 3 hours and 20 minutes of solid writing it wasn’t just the students’ brains that were taxed.

“I can’t feel my arm – I think the blood circulation’s been cut off. I wrote about 12½ pages,” Lee Bird from Glasnevin said but added he was happy enough with the paper, if not the overall exams.

“The Leaving Cert itself is too compact. I started yesterday and I’m finishing next Thursday so I think it’s far too much pressure for one person to handle in such a short time period.

“It’s pretty intense,” he added, before heading home to hit the books ahead of Maths today.

St Vincent’s, which has seen a boost in enrolments after having dropped years previously, is better-known for its sports stars than its poets, boasting the likes of Dessie Farrell, Jason Sherlock, Ken Cunningham and ‘Pillar’ Caffrey among its past pupils. But overall the mood was good among the students, who felt they were well prepared for the days ahead.

John Allen, who is originally from the Philippines but who lives in Phibsboro, wondered what all the fuss was about.

“It’s not hard if you actually study,” he said.

EXAMS THE TIMETABLE

LEAVING CERT

Today

Geography

Maths Paper 1

Monday

Maths Paper 2

Irish Paper 1

JUNIOR CERT

Today

Geography

Environmental and Social Studies

Maths Paper 1

Monday

Maths Paper 2

CSPE (Civics)