History and geography to… Irish (say, what?): the Leaving Cert papers we loved

It's almost time.

Yes, with less than 24 hours to go until the Class of 2017 sits down to what is traditionally heralded as 'the most important exam of your life' (although a whole load of folk are a testament to otherwise), here at Her we're reflecting on the subject highs of our own Leaving Cert lives...

Niamh Maher, Class of 2005

Music

I never took a science subject. I had a feeling from a young age that it was important for me to stay away from chemicals. My Leaving Cert subjects were Art, History, Italian, and Music (safe to say I’d never be a doctor).

Our music room was located at the very top of our old Georgian building on Leeson street in Dublin. And that’s how I liked it… being away from everyone else and working on melodies for a couple of hours on a Friday evening was complete bliss.

I ended up playing the drums and singing for the theory element of my exams - a logistical nightmare for my father who had always hoped I’d stick with the tin whistle (easier to fit in the car). My examiner told me I was the only girl in all of Ireland who was playing the drums that year for her exam. Take that, science!

Gillian Fitzpatrick, Class of 20o2

Geography

A day off school for a field study; colouring in maps and sketches; examining photos of volcanic activity - there was an awful lot to love about Leaving Cert geography.

As is often the case, my love of the subject stemmed from having a really great teacher who genuinely injected life into the mundane likes town planning and irrigation.

Sure elements of the course might sound a bit snooze - but I felt I walked away at the end of my school years with a wide-ranging knowledge and grasp of a lot of key topics.

An added bonus? Well, while I'm loath to say that anything to do with the LC is "easy" (the whole experience is pretty hellish, in fact), when weighed up versus the likes of history, Irish, or maths - Geography is as straightforward as it gets.

Katie Mythen Lynch, Class of 2001

Classical Studies Given the opportunity to change subjects in third year ahead of the senior cycle (and having stubbornly refused to take Home Ec because of some teenage feminist notions about ironing and making quiche I was cultivating at the time) I settled on Classical Studies. Mainly because the teacher, Ms Walsh, was fun and beyond glamorous. Luckily, I immediately found myself whisked away by the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome and lost for hours in big stonking books such as Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad. What many people don't know about Classical Studies is that Greek drama is grittier than The Wire and more violent than Eastenders. The ancient Greeks took zero shit. Take Medea for instance; the original 'woman scorned', Medea's fella Jason abandons her for the King's daughter, Glauce. Spoiler alert: Medea avenges her husband's betrayal by killing their two children with a knife. Not content with that, Medea then sends Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king Creon, who went to help her. She later escaped to start a new life in Athens, where I think about her every time I visit.

Alison Bough, Class of 1999

Irish

As the mongrel daughter of an English protestant (heathen invader) from London and a mother of staunch Catholic farming stock with Louth and Mayo roots, I could have swung either way when it came to my native tongue. Despite this, Irish came easily enough to me without too much effort - I was never “go h-uafásach” as Bosco used to repeat ad-infinitim. Had I been arsed I could have done Honours for the Leaving. But unfortunately it transpired that I could, in fact, not be arsed. I idled my way through the aul gnáthleibhéal syllabus for two years, listening to fuzzy tape recorders issuing a beep that still resounds in my 4AM nightmares… “BEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP leigh anois go curamach na treoireacha agus na ceisteanna a ghabhann n le cuid Á. Beeeeeeeeeep. Beeeeeeeeeep. Beeeeeeeeeep.” I think Robbie Cronin, an Irish-language teacher of 25 years, summed Peig up perfectly when he went on record to say that she “had everything that Dev would have loved in a woman.” Sadly, a B1 in pass Irish was as far as I made it in the ideal woman stakes. Dev must be spinning.

Anna O'Rourke, Class of 2013

English  Surprise, surprise – a journalist who enjoyed English at school! And while it would be easy to dismiss the longer-term validity of the hours I put down deciphering Shakespearean dialogue, actually I learned some core skills that I reckon I still put to good use today. I always liked English and so I worked hard on it - a link which taught me the important if enjoying what you do. In turn, this helped me to choose a career I’m genuinely interested in; journalism (sadly Lizzie McGuire took my original idea of being an international pop star and singing at the Colosseum while exposing Paolo as a fraud).

Laura Holland, Class of 2005

Orlaith Condon, Class of 2011

Art At the beginning of Fifth Year art was actually one of subjects I least looked forward. But gradually it became my favourite - all thanks to an amazing grinds teacher. Yes, I took grinds in art… and believe me, I’ve heard all the jokes. The six hours of so I did art and art history in school became a doss class; my friends and I would sit down the back and ‘draw our feelings’ – basically mix some random paints and create something a parent might expect to receive from their infant after a day in playschool. But my two hours of art grinds a week were when I was at my most studious. Curating a most impressive study folder (I'm still proud of it to this day), I flew through my exams – much to the surprise of my teacher at school who had told my mother she should be "very worried".

Cathy Donohue, Class of 2006

Alice Murray, Class of 2012

Biology