Students taught as gaeilge enjoy the advantage

STUDENTS at Coláiste Pobail Osrai in Kilkenny city were at something of an advantage yesterday afternoon.

The secondary equivalent of a Gaelscoil, the Coláiste teaches all subjects through Irish so Irish Paper I in the Junior Cert was greeted in a relaxed manner by the students who are all fluent in the old language.

It’s rare to hear secondary pupils universally describing an Irish paper as “grand”, but that was the consensus at Coláiste Pobail yesterday.

Marianna Byrne said the morning’s maths Paper I was “kind of hard”, with a few unexpected questions on the honours exam, but she hoped to do well.

“I’m hoping for a B or a C.”

Amy Synnott was hoping for a good grade in the pass version: “It was a lot easier than honours,” she said. “I’d be hoping for an A.

But I’d say it will be a B or C. It will be grand.”

She agreed that learning everything through Irish gave them “a big advantage” in the subject.

Jamie Minogue of St Kieran’s College found the maths paper “hard enough” but conceded it wasn’t his top subject: “I hate it anyway. It was as bad as I expected really.”

Eoghan Connolly described the honours exam as “grand”, and in line with his hopes. “I’d say it will be an ‘A’ on that one,” he predicted.