Well, we're surviving. We're lucky actually: Tara is studying well in that she's stuck away down in her room and only surfaces at meal-times. She's quite diligent in that sense.
Obviously we're all trying to not put any pressure on here. I've three other kids in the house, one who's just back from college, a Transition Year student and a 10-year-old. I've heard the Transition Year student down in the room with Tara going over questions, so she's giving her some support. The college student is just keeping out of the way and the 10-year-old plays when she gets the chance.
Tara's been getting up at the usual time as if she was going to school, so she's not staying in bed in the mornings. She has been having breakfast and talking with us a little bit then. After that, After she's eaten she just switches off and watches the television for an hour. She doesn't really chat that much in the hour - she seems to want to watch something that she doesn't have to think about - and with daytime TV you don't have to use your brain at all; it's her way of spacing out.
She goes back to study for the afternoon and stays in her room until 5 p.m. Then she will come down for something to eat, but doesn't say very much then either.
The atmosphere in our house is still quite good, but tensions are mounting. At this stage Tara is just concentrating on the subjects she has this week - English, Irish and maths.
It does worry me, though, how hard she's working. I actually took her out the other day, just to do the general shopping, but I did make her go out because I think you can overdo it.
I'm relieved that she's just concentrating on a few subjects now. Last Monday week they had their graduation Mass and they all hit the town that night - that was her last bit of escapism before the exams.
She's being quite positive, I think. If she doesn't get the points for the course she wants, which is optics at 535 points, or something shocking like that, she says she'll be happy with astrophysics at 480. She feels that's quite good, and I still think that's very high.
I think Tara is very level-headed so she knows whatever happens we will support her. I've always maintained that no matter what happens, there's something for everybody out there and all my kids know that.
I've sort of asked if she would consider repeating if the need arose, to which she very definitely said: "No way". However, whether things will alter in August, I don't know.
She says she wants to have one good stab at it and really work hard. Her view is that given the amount of effort she's put in, there's no way she wants to go back and do it all again.
I don't really feel the need to interfere, but I do feel quite relieved if she ever takes a break. She's still studying at 12 o'clock at night and I'm making myself leave her to her own devices. It's very hard and I do feel she shouldn't study so late at night but this is the way she wants to do it and at the end of the day she's her own person. She's enough pressure on her without me going on at her and she's more organised than I ever was, so maybe she knows best.
In an interview with Olivia Kelly
