Leaving Cert cancellation 'the right call' for Limerick camogie standout

Shauna Darcy, 18, Limerick and a student of Laurel Hill Colaiste. Picture Brendan Gleeson

For rising camogie star Shauna D’Arcy, cancelling this year’s Leaving Cert exams was the right call.

“Because for me and for my close friends, it was affecting our mental health majorly. We were finding it really hard to find the motivation to keep going until the end of July, August.”

Shauna, who plays camogie with the Junior Limerick team, has found aspects of the lockdown tough: “I would need sports to keep me going, but I didn’t have that and I felt that I had no motivation to keep studying. I felt unprepared for the exams because I didn’t have the time in school that I would have had."

The 18-year-old is a student at Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick city. Last summer, she scored the winning goal that pushed her team through to the All Ireland Junior Final, all within her first minute on the camogie pitch. She hopes to go on to study primary school teaching at Mary Immaculate College.

A survey carried out in her school found that 78% of the students were in favour of cancelling the exams, she said, adding that most of her friends were in favour of cancellation: I have some friends who said that the only reason that they might prefer to sit the exams was because they’’re looking to study medicine. Because the HPAT was so close to the ’’pres’’, they put all their time and effort into the HPAT and didn’t put as much time into the pres."

"But like everyone else, they understand themselves that they’’d rather be safe than be sorry. I thought it was really difficult to learn at home. My teachers have been unbelievable; If we wanted one-on-one sessions with teachers, they organised  them straight away, they were perfect. But I felt myself that it just wasn’t the same environment. I wasn’’t retaining information as quickly I would have been."

Her mother, Cecilia Moore, said the uncertainty around the exams has been stressful: "We didn’’t have to push Shauna ever to study once but once the shutdown came, it was a different household. You’d have to tiptoe around being quiet because she was either upstairs in a class or upstairs studying. Shauna always took it on herself to study but the whole demeanor in the house was affected — I won’t say it was all doom and gloom but it wasn’t positive."

"This whole scenario not knowing when the exams would be done was the worst part for us. Because there was nothing concrete; We didn’t know if she’d be sitting in July, would she not, would there be knock-on effects for college? Not that the Department of Education could do any more, they couldn’t really with what was going on.  It’’s unprecedented what’s happened to the world right now. So it’s a learning curve for everybody, and it’’s a teaching moment for parents and students. I do feel sorry for some of the students who would have been on the side of a positive Leaving Cert," she added.

“For us personally, sport has a big influence in our house, and it’’s a great way to release any tension that’s built up. To be honest, Shauna misses the sport but everybody is missing out. Family members can’t be seen at the moment, never mind the sports. But yes, it has had a negative effect in the house, I won’t lie."