Saoirse Lonergan will be celebrating on the double this week.

The Transition Year pupil at Loreto Secondary School, Fermoy, Co Cork, who turns 16 tomorrow, is one of just four students nationwide to achieve 12 higher level A grades in the Junior Cert.

“I was delighted when I opened the envelope as you’d guess. I hadn’t been expecting it and it was a lovely suprise,” said Saoirse, from Conna, Co Cork.

“I wasn’t nervous beforehand. I’m quite a laid-back person. I was reading on the way to school in the car. I really wouldn’t stress about things like that. There’s nothing I could do at that point anyway,” said Saoirse, who comes from a family of high flyers.

Two of her sisters are studying Medicine at University College Cork, one of whom, Eibhlin, got eight A1s in her Leaving Cert last year.

“I’m going out with my friends to celebrate,” she said yesterday evening. “We will go to a restaurant and to the cinema in Cork and on Friday I’ll be celebrating my birthday with my family and friends.”

The 15-year-old said she had no idea what she wanted to do after school and was unsure of whether she wanted to follow in her sisters’ footsteps.

Two of the other three 15-year-old students who opened envelopes to find they had achieved 12 higher-level As attend schools in Co Clare, while the third is from Co Longford.

Roisín Ní Fhallúin, from Ballyea, Ennis, Co Clare is a pupil at Gaelcholaiste an Chlair, Ennis – an all-Irish division of Ennis Community College – while Cristoir King is from Kildeema, Moyasta, Kilkee, Co Clare and attends Kilrush Community College.

In Co Longford, Emma Donohoe from Ballymahon – a student at Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon – also achieved 12 As in her exams.