MEATH and Mayo may have scored on the GAA pitch but Cork, Clare, Dublin and Louth were the four counties in at the finish of this year's All-Ireland Easter week scholarships.
Each year, seven scholarships are awarded by the Department of Education in commemoration of Easter Week, 1916. These are awarded to students who score the highest marks in the Leaving Certificate in prescribed subject groups. This year, two schools scored a double. Two students of Manor House school, in Dublin, took the honours in the Eamonn Ceannt and James Connolly scholarships while one student, Jean Hegarty, of St Caimin's Community School, Shannon, won both the Tom Clarke and the Thomas McDonagh scholarship.
David Barry, principal of St Caimin's, who is, "exceptionally pleased", notes that the school also won an Easter Week scholarship last year. Over the past three years, the school has had six pupils with seven A1s so the school is no stranger to academic honours. "These are obviously very high calibre students. The school is pleased that we managed to developed their talents and that the teachers enabled, them to reach that standard."
Jean Hegarty will study veterinary science in UCD this year. She did not choose it because it is a high-points course, Barry stresses, but rather because it is what she always wanted to do. The ethos of the school is to develop the whole person, he adds, not just the academic abilities of pupils. "I'm always delighted with pupils like Jean, who obviously spend long hours studying but who are also balanced enough to have other interests," says Barry, who is a past-president of the ASTI. Jean's extracurricular interests included Irish debating and various scientific projects.
St Caimin's is a relatively young school - it was built in 1985 on a greenfield site. About half its 600 pupils come from the town of Shannon and the remainder from the rural hinterland. It is co-educational and offers a broad education with a huge extra-curricular programme, says Barry. "From the time pupils come into the school, we encourage them to take part."
The other recipient of two scholarships, Manor House school is a single-sex school which was founded in 1953 by the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. The principal, Mary Clare O'Malley, describes the school as "very academic, very traditional with a perceptible work ethic." Seventy five per cent of its pupils continue their studies at third level. Many of its past pupils have studied at Oxford and Cambridge.
O'Malley, who was appointed principal just over a year ago, is the first lay principal nuns school retains its Catholic ethos, "not in an oppressive sense but in a Christian sense, O'Malley explains. It is a happy school, she says, with each pupil cared for a holistic manner. There are six deans of discipline, one for each form and a strong pastoral care system. There is also a school prefect system.
As well as its academic reputation, Manor House enjoys a formidable reputation in the school sports arena. It is also well known for fielding strongly competitive debating teams. One scholarship recipient, Aedin Margaret Hanrahan, is a seasoned debater. O'Malley describes both Aedin and fellow winner Susan Mary Barry as great all-rounders.
Aedin and Susan will go on to study engineering - Susan in UCD and Aedin in TCD. Manor House is very strong in the sciences, says O'Malley, and offers honours maths, applied maths, physics, chemistry and biology. There is very good career guidance service, she says, so students frequently opt for career choices, such as engineering which arc predominantly male preserves.
The Easter Week scholarship recipients receive the equivalent of a Higher Education Authority grant plus £50. The actual amount depends on whether they qualify for the "away" or the "adjacent" rate. In addition, they will have their fees paid for a subsequent post-graduate course.
Students do not have to apply for the 1916 scholarships. The Department of Education trawls through all the Leaving Certificate results each year to find the students with the highest marks in the particular subject combinations.
