Micheal O'Connor (17), a Leaving Cert student from Mallow, Co Cork, conceded that there might well be something in the north Cork air which stimulates the brain after he achieved a maximum points performance with six A1s and two A2s in the Leaving Certificate.
"Yep, there must be something in the air all right", smiled Micheal as he followed in the footsteps of fellow Mallow students, Natalie and Alecia Barry, who each achieved eight A1s in the Leaving Certificate in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
Micheal, a pupil at Patrician Academy, who combined his studies with captaining the school rugby team, was delighted with his results. "I'm very happy, thrilled in fact", he said. "I want to do electronic engineering, but I was a bit nervous before getting my results. I thought it could be pretty tight on points. It was 490 last year and I thought I might get 510. I was shocked to discover I had got 600 points."
The principal of Patrician Academy, Mr Chris Mansfield, said that the results achieved by the school's 50 Leaving Cert pupils were among the best ever. "We had a vintage crop this year and their results were quite remarkable. We're absolutely elated."
Meanwhile, at Presentation Brothers College in Cork city, identical twins James and Bill McEvoy (19) were celebrating a double success after they obtained near-matching results (seven As each) in the examination.
James got seven straight A1s while Bill got five A1s and two A2s, giving them 600 and 590 points respectively, more than enough to get them into electronic engineering and medicine at University College Cork.
Meanwhile, at Bruce College in Cork, Claire McCarthy, from Skibbereen, was celebrating five straight A1s and one A2, more than enough to get her into medicine at UCC.
The principal of Bruce College, Mr Mike Hogan, revealed that seven pupils at the college had achieved 550 points or more. "Some 16 per cent of our students scored 500 points or more, compared to the national average of 3.3 per cent of students achieving 450 points or more in 1997", he said.
