Students who focused on John Montague and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin should have been pleased to see both feature on yesterday’s Leaving Certificate higher and ordinary level English exams.

Stargazing and astronomy featured in the opening exam for 45,000 Junior Certificate students taking higher level English yesterday.

For higher-level Leaving Certificate English students, Seamus Heaney appeared for a second day running — but it was an unseen poem of his that made yesterday’s long Paper 2.

The 2014 Junior Certificate began with English papers at over 700 schools around the country yesterday morning.