Student who missed seven weeks of school in bid to save flood-hit home passes Leaving Cert

A teenager who missed seven weeks of his Leaving Certificate school year, in a bid to save his flood-hit home during last year’s devastating winter storms, has ambitions to develop a flood defence plan for his community after qualifying for an engineering course.

Luke Kinsella, then aged 16, attracted national news headlines last December, working day and night alongside his 15-year old twin siblings Jake and Philip as they maintained a barrier of sandbags around their swamped home in Springfield, Co Clare.

The trio, who previously lost their father through suicide, “became the men of the house” as they battled the tide, according to their proud mother, Bridget.