Laura Durack (18), who was playing camogie last night to distract herself from this morning’s results, was “happy” with her result in ag science and “very happy overall”.

“I went into the school [Scariff Community College in Co Clare] at about 10am with my mum and there were only about five or six students there. Overall, people seemed quite happy, but there were still a few nerves around.”

Now, Laura and her mum will be preparing for the 60-plus people in her year who will be coming around later for celebratory drinks.

“Now I can relax a bit, I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

Diarmaid McNamara (18), also from Scariff Community College, was very happy with his results, achieving 350 points overall, exactly what he was hoping for.

“I’m very happy with that,” he said. “But I was a little disappointed as far as ag science was concerned. I got a C1 when I would have been expecting a B2. A few of the lads in school felt the same, expecting they’d get a higher grade in ag science, so we’re considering getting a recheck done on that paper.”

Diarmaid was happiest with the engineering paper, for which he received a B3.

His 350 points leaves Diarmaid comfortably within reach of his first choice on his CAO form in construction management, which he hopes to study in Waterford Institute of Technology.

“Although I want to stay working with the Shorthorns long-term (Diarmaid’s family farm breeds beef Shorthorn), this course seems very practical and I’d like to try my hand at something a little different during college.”

As he’s planning a night out in Ennis with his friends to celebrate, Diarmaid has wisely booked today and tomorrow off from his part-time job on a dairy farm.

Almost 58,000 students received their Leaving Cert results today. There was a 3% decrease in the number of Leaving Cert students sitting agricultural science, but the number which sat the paper in 2015 still represents an overall increase of 32.6% since 2010.

The State Examinations Commission has stated that the results obtained in most subjects are broadly in line with those of previous years.

Liam Coyle, Irish Agricultural Science Teachers' Association's representative on the NCCA Syallbus Committee, said he was very happy with the grades achieved by agricultural science students this year. He also said the State Examinations Commission was to be commended on a paper which would have suited dedicated ag-science students and not people who were expecting a pseudo-biology paper as had been the case over the last few years.

"The general consensus among ag science teachers is that it was a fair paper and students from an agricultural background would have been rewarded by it. As with previous years and with other Leaving Cert subjects, certainly where I teach in Scariff Community College, the girls seemed to do slightly better than the boys. "

Read more

Big wait almost over for Leaving Cert students