Maths enthusiast achieves gold standard

A maths genius had a double-gold moment when he received a prize from world champion walker Rob Heffernan for being one of this year’s three top Leaving Certificate maths students.

As well as Brendan O’Brien, formerly of Douglas Community School in Cork, the Accenture Analytics Mathematics Excellence Award is being awarded to another Cork student — Christian Brothers College graduate Conor Moloney — and Darragh Rice, who studied at St Brendan’s College in Killarney, Co Kerry. The awards are organised by the Irish Maths Teachers’ Association, with recipients being those deemed to have the most meritorious performance from among students with the highest results in each year’s honours papers.

Hearing about his success from the school last week was a big surprise to Brendan, despite his interest in and success at the subject.

“I knew coming out of the exam I did well, I was pretty confident, but I was blown away by this,” said the 18-year-old. “I always assumed there would be someone else much better.”

While controversy remains over the new Project Maths school syllabus, Brendan is on the side of academics who have voiced concerns that many elements are no longer covered and that exam questions are a lot longer and wordier than before.

“For people who wouldn’t be that interested in maths, I can see that it would be a bit easier to engage with,” said Brendan. “But I was always interested in the subject at school and I would much prefer pure maths.”

Brendan has begun a four-year degree in physics and astrophysics at University College Cork but already intends to pursue a PhD in physics at a later date.

He said he was proud and delighted to receive a prize at his alma mater yesterday from world champion Heffernan, who was guest speaker at the school’s ann-ual awards. Douglas Community School students were honoured for sporting, academic, and other achievements in the last year.