Herculean task to end exams

Hannibal crossing the Alps, Hercules and the Emperor Tiberius have at least one thing in common - they all appeared on the Latin…

Hannibal crossing the Alps, Hercules and the Emperor Tiberius have at least one thing in common - they all appeared on the Latin papers, the year's last Junior Cert exam, sat by 635 students. Some 110 of these were pupils at Belvedere College, Dublin, where their teacher, Mr Joe Thulier, said there was something for anyone who had done the work. Tough questions on the higher paper included the Latin-into-English translation on Hannibal and the comprehension piece on Emperor-elect Tiberius. "It was a long paper, tough at times, but fair and well laid out," Mr Thulier said. At ordinary level, conscientious students could do well, he said, since the set poetry and history accounted for 40 per cent of the marks. Some 549 students sat Junior Cert exams in classical studies.