'We have a lot of happy students': Covid cohort of Junior Cycle pupils get results 

This cohort of Junior Cycle students began their secondary school journey in 2020 and were met with face masks and social distancing

Students at Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh receiving their Junior Cert results on Wednesday. Picture: Kevin Ó Raghallaigh

Students in Limerick who have been among the first to receive their Junior Cycle results on Wednesday are “ecstatic”.

Ava Ryan from Annacotty is one of a record 70,727 students across the country receiving their results. The Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh student said she is delighted after getting five distinctions and four higher merits, adding that her results reflect her hard work.

She had been most concerned about her favourite subject — history, with Irish history, in particular, having a big impact and peaking her interest some years ago.

“But I did better than I thought, I’m very happy. There’s a nice atmosphere. Everybody's being nice to everybody else. Obviously, not everyone wants to tell everyone what they got but I think everyone's kind of happy for everybody else as well,” she said.

This cohort of Junior Cycle students began their secondary school journey in 2020 and were met with face masks, social distancing and open windows. They never got the chance to finish 6th class in person, with classes coming to an abrupt end in March 2020.

Ava said the experience was “very strange” but made students her age more mature.

“You wouldn't know what your friends looked like properly because you've never seen them without the mask. I only knew what their eyes and their forehead looked like,” she said.

The 16-year-old said social distancing measures that resulted in one-way systems may have been frustrating for older students but for them, it was the “new normal”.

She said:

I think 15- and 16-year-olds now are much more empathetic than they would have been if covid hadn't happened.

Now in Transition Year, Ava is taking the opportunity to take a break from “the stress and the grind of exams and classes” and will celebrate her results by going out for dinner with friends.

Despite abysmal weather and lashing rain, it has not dampened the mood at Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh with principal Kevin Ó Raghallaigh saying students are “ecstatic”.

It was Mr Ó Raghallaigh who informed the Irish Examiner of Ava’s success, who achieved five distinctions and four higher merits.

Students at Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh getting their Junior Cert results on Wednesday. Picture: Kevin Ó Raghallaigh

“We have a lot of happy students here this morning with smiles across their faces. It makes it all worthwhile,” he said.

Mr Ó Raghallaigh said there was an element of online learning for the cohort during the pandemic adding that one positive to come from the pandemic is the resilience that students have shown.

“I think the progress that they've made and the results that they’re after getting is a testament to themselves and their incredible teachers,” he said.