Navan remembers bus crash victims as students collect their results

Jim Morahan, Navan

Mostly, they came in twos and threes, up the sweeping tree-lined avenue and past manicured lawns towards St Michael's Loreto Secondary School. Others walked by themselves, absorbed in thought.

Last May the Co Meath town became the epicentre of national heartache when a school bus crash snatched life from five local teenage students. Now, less than three months on, the heartache is still strong and tears continue to be shed.

They were returning to their alma mater to collect their Leaving Cert exam results, remembering fellow St Michael's students Claire McCluskey, 18, and Deirdre Scanlon, 17, who died on that awful Monday.

Their thoughts were also with the families and friends of 15-year-olds Aimee McCabe, Lisa Callan and Sinead Ledwidge, who also died in the crash.

As if somehow unsure of their well-trod route, they sought reassurance through exchanged glances or by sporadically clutching at each other.

"Oh my God, I passed I passed." Barbara Burke released the pent-up anxiety being experienced across the country by more than 52,000 leaving students. Shouting into her mobile, she exclaimed to the world: "Mammy, I passed. I passed every single one. Please don't cry." Sensitive to media intrusion on this emotionally brittle day, school principal Sister Elaine emerged to express her concern. "It's too early yet to be asking questions," she said.

She described the "excellent achievements" of the students and praised "the courage and spirit" with which they had faced their exams last June.

"Today all associated with St Michael's are mindful of the McCluskey and Scanlon families as they face this milestone in the loss of their daughters Claire and Deirdre."

Nora Meade, chairperson of the Parents' Association, said: "It's going to be a tough day for them."

A father and daughter were in floods of tears, neither hardly able to speak. It emerged she had scored seven A1s and he managed to whisper "she's an amazing girl" when we learned his own mother died recently, his daughter losing her granny.

Shrieks and whoops abounded in the school grounds. "What did you get? What did you get?" One such reply noted: "I got honours maths I'm going to college!"

Laura Honniball chirped: "I'm thrilled, I got more than I wanted. I want to do architectural technology."

In a sea of hyper excitement, Erica Casanova was utterly relaxed: "I hope to go to Dublin City University to study accountancy; it's my first choice."

Lisa Killion and her mother Nora were thrilled in equal measure. As her mother basked in parental joy, Lisa proudly showed her results: all As in Irish, English, history, French, biology and music and a B2 in Maths. She wants to be a primary school teacher and "probably would like to teach in an Irish school".

Eimear Marry, with 375 points, was hoping to enrol in NUI Maynooth to study finance and accounting.

"I passed everything. It was a miracle," screamed another on a mobile. Half the town must have heard.