Ireland's top Leaving Certificate student, Aodhnait Ni Fhathaigh, had a brown envelope with her when she went shopping for a debs' ball gown in Cork yesterday. In it was a slip of paper confirming that she had received nine A1s in this year's examination, the highest score in the State.
Aodhnait (18), a student at Christ the King Secondary School near Douglas, Cork, was excited by the result, but not too excited. "Realistically, I thought I might have a chance of getting nine As, but I didn't expect nine A1s. It's great, really."
Both Aodhnait and her older sister, Caoimhe, got 10 As in the Junior Certificate. Caoimhe scored eight As in her Leaving Certificate. "Next year our younger sister, Cranait (14), will be sitting the Junior Cert. The pressure will be shifting to her then", Aodhnait said yesterday.
She handed her mother the results slip in the school grounds and, without telling her how she had done, asked her to have a look. "Mum started crying. Then I telephoned Dad and he started laughing when he heard the news", she said.
The school principal, Ms Gene Geoghegan, initially told her that she had obtained nine As and then suggested she sit down before she told her they were A1s.
The nine A1s were in the four compulsory subjects in her school, Irish, English, maths and French, as well as in German, physics, chemistry, applied maths and music.
During the school year she had studied consistently, but had done nothing special, Aodhnait said.
An accomplished violinist, Aodhnait was the under-18 leader of the National Youth Orchestra when it toured Denmark last year.
"I want to do biochemistry at Oxford. I hope to concentrate on genetics", she said as her mobile phone rang once again. The news was beginning to spread around town.