Plucky Patricia thrives in face of adversity
While almost 60,000 youngsters and more than 1,000 adults celebrated their grades last night, the 17-year-old Down's syndrome student was settling into pizza at her favourite Italian restaurant.
She was over the moon when Mary Whyte, principal at her school, St Joseph's of Cluny in Killiney, handed over her results' slip yesterday afternoon.
"I was crying I was so happy, I worked very hard, but I'm very surprised I did so well," said a delighted Patricia, who lives in Glenageary, Co Dublin. She picked up an A in foundation level English and in civic, social and political education (CSPE), helped by her keen interest in current affairs and reading newspapers. Her other grades were Bs in ordinary level history and art, and a C in ordinary level home economics.
Proud mother (also Patricia) was almost equally as elated over her daughter's results after she overcame serious illness earlier this year to sit her exams.
"The staff and the other girls at the school are just great; they really look out for her. This should be a real wake-up call for the Government, after ourselves and so many other families fought for so long for a proper education for our children," she said.
Patricia will be joining her 75 classmates on an activity weekend in Galway today, where she will be their official photographer.
For thousands of other students, there were also celebrations at achieving numerous As in the biggest exam of their lives so far. There were four students with 11 top grades in higher level papers, while another 45 got 10 As.
More than 3,400 students got at least a handful of top grades in higher level subjects and in CSPE, for which only one paper is set.
Patricia's A in the subject puts her ahead of three-quarters of 57,330 who sat the paper, making her achievement even more praiseworthy.
Once again, girls outscored the boys, getting more honours grades in all but six of the subjects at all levels. However, the failure rate of almost 4% in the religious education exam has angered parents.
