Leaving Cert English Paper 1 ordinary level: From celebrity culture to graffiti artist Banksy, it had ‘something for everyone’

Siobhan O’Donovan, of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said students reported that the paper was “very manageable”.

She said many students engaged with article by journalist Liam Mackey in which O’Sullivan reflects on her life and career and talked about her experience of moving to Glasgow when she was just 18.

Teacher Lorraine Tuffy, of Jesus and Mary Secondary school in Enniscrone, Co Sligo, and the Studyclix website, said her story would “resonate with those candidates who find themselves embarking on exciting new chapters after the Leaving Cert”.

Ms Tuffy said the other texts were equally well pitched - one a commencement speech by award-winning author George Saunders and an article about graffiti artist Banksy accompanied by two popular visuals.

The Question B options were a blog recording on what life is like during the first year living away from home, a radio interview with an older person who has had an eventful life and a letter to a local newspaper regarding the presence of graffiti in the locality.

Ms O’Donovan, who teaches at Patrician Academy, Mallow, Co Cork, said the essays offered great choices and quoted a student who described the titles as “lovely”. They included a personal essay in which students were asked to” describe some of the things in life that you are passionate about”, and a short story in which two rival characters compete against each other

Ms Tuffy agreed that the essay titles were “broad and varied” and much like the higher-level paper, the personal essay options were “open and comfortable." Students were asked to either consider their personal passions in life or the people who had influenced them throughout their lives.

She said the speech option proffered an interesting debate topic: ‘Human beings never learn from their mistakes.’

Ms Tuffy added that “there was something for everyone with an article reflecting on celebrity culture: ‘Celebrities - Love them or hate them?’”

Ms O’Donovan said that similar to the higher-level paper, ordinary level was “very fair and contained something for everyone”.

She said that, as an examiner, she looked forward to “reading and marking a selection of this work later in the summer”.

Meanwhile, the wide variety of topics on the Leaving Cert Applied English and Communications paper, including a question featuring comedians, the Two Johnnies and an item on their podcast about catfishing.