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A student who this morning received 8H1s in the Leaving Certificate was full of praise for his grandparents who have been busy “lighting candles” in the run-up to results day.
Alex Lynch, who was a pupil of Christian Brothers College (CBC) in Cork, said that he was “over the moon” even though he was finding it difficult to absorb receiving top marks across the board.
“I had excitement and nerves and a bit of broken sleep. The Leaving Certificate has been stressful obviously and a bit unnerving at times because there were all different reports saying that the exams would be cancelled and that there would be predicted grades. At last we got a bit of clarity.”
Alex plans to study medicine at UCC. He paid tribute to the support of his family — particularly his grandparents Tim and Eileen Ring in Lombardstown and his grandmother Noreen Lynch in Cobh.
“All the candles they lit and the cards they sent have finally paid off. My nana [in Cobh] is over the moon. She was probably even more nervous than I was.”
Proud mother Margaret Ring said she was delighted for Alex who “worked so hard.”
“He deserves it. He has been very cool. It has been a calm house much to my surprise. He has been a joy. We are going to my parents’ house this afternoon because my mother is thrilled.We are going there to let them give him a big hug.”
Elsewhere, it was a proud day for the Hayden family of Rochestown in Cork with 19-year-old twins Stephen and Robert receiving excellent results. The twins were within a handful of points of each other.
Stephen received 7 H1s and and was relieved to have done so well after the difficulties Covid caused students in their final year.
“I remember in April and it would be dark and you would be doing accounting for hours, and then you would finish the day off with a call with friends. There wasn’t much distraction from it.”
“After the pres the restrictions were still there, and we were the only ones in the school for a while. That was really tough. You don’t really have the social outlet which was hard.
“With the mask, the way you are separated at tables. You don’t think it is going to have such an effect but it does. January, February through to April were tough months. My mood was very much linked with the Government policy at the time,” Stephen said.
“But it timed out really well. We just stayed focused. We realised we were in a really bad situation with Covid, but we had a clear way of getting out of it,” he said.
“We knew that if we stayed focused we would get a good Leaving Cert. Get in to college and have a great time there.”
Robert said having his twin brother in the same house was a big motivator. “During the lockdown you couldn’t see your classmates. You didn’t have those people around to help you push yourself. I could see that Stephen was putting in the work so I had to do it. It was a visual motivation.”
The brothers plan to study at Trinity College Dublin.