{"id":483737,"date":"2026-06-05T02:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483737\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T02:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:35:09","slug":"leaving-cert-english-paper-two-a-thought-provoking-paper-with-no-curveballs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483737\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Cert English paper two a \u2018thought-provoking\u2019 paper with \u2018no curveballs\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving Cert<\/a> English paper two<\/a> was overall viewed as \u201cmanageable\u201d as poets Paula Meehan<\/a> and Elizabeth Bishop both appeared.<\/p>\n

Siobh\u00e1n O\u2019Donovan, a teacher at the Patrician Academy in Co Cork, said students will be \u201cvery happy\u201d with the exam overall as students faced \u201cno curveballs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone had any big problem with the exam,\u201d O\u2019Donovan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts lovely to see them coming out happy,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s not always the case that you see students coming out of the exam hall with a smile on their face.<\/p>\n

Gillian Chute, head of English at The Tuition Centre, said the paper struck a \u201ccommendable balance between accessibility and challenge\u201d in which students\u2019 full range of English skills would have been tested.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thought-provoking yet manageable paper for the well-prepared candidate,\u201d Chute said. <\/p>\n

While the paper contained its \u201cshare of nuanced questions\u201d, Chute said the \u201cbreadth of choice available ensured that candidates had ample opportunity to play to their strengths and maximise their potential\u201d. <\/p>\n

Liam Dingle, a teacher at the Institute of Education<\/a>, said paper two \u201cchallenged candidates to navigate the specifics of the question while also offering them a movable feast of material\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dingle said the appearance of poets Paula Meehan and Elizabeth Bishop would have given students a \u201clittle moment of triumph\u201d before taking on the exam.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leaving Cert English paper one a \u2018lovely\u2019 exam, teachers sayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Chute said that for those delighted to see Meehan on the paper, they may have been disappointed by a question that required \u201ccareful consideration and some candidates may have struggled to fully grasp its nuances under exam conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chute said the single-text questions on Macbeth were both \u201cthought-provoking and engaging\u201d and rewarded students for using their critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said the first question on Macbeth was a \u201cvery nice question\u201d while the second \u201cmay have seemed off-putting\u201d at first but wouldn\u2019t have frightened a well-prepared candidate.<\/p>\n

In the comparative section, each mode \u201cdemanded a careful and attentive reading\u201d before answering the questions, Chute said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said students were particularly pleased to answer the comparative question on the relation of a patriarchal and male-dominated world in the texts they studied.<\/p>\n

The unseen poem, Alvy Carragher\u2019s Library, had a familiar approach and was welcomed by each teacher.<\/p>\n

As for the ordinary level paper, O\u2019Donovan said there was one \u201ctricky\u201d element of the single text question where students were tasked with arguing in a debate on the issue of AI in relation to their chosen texts. <\/p>\n

However, O\u2019Donovan said overall students were happy with the level of choice for the majority of the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents at ordinary level too emerged from the exam hall tired but happy with the contents of their paper, with one student saying it was \u2018very straightforward\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaving Cert English paper two was overall viewed as \u201cmanageable\u201d as poets Paula Meehan and Elizabeth Bishop both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43491,17163,42,3184,43,208052,28205,2055,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-483737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cao","tag-classroom-to-college","tag-headlines","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-news","tag-paula-meehan","tag-second-level","tag-students","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}