{"id":493078,"date":"2026-06-10T20:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493078\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:37:09","slug":"leaving-cert-history-very-challenging-paper-with-few-predicted-staples-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/493078\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Cert history: \u2018Very challenging\u2019 paper with few predicted staples\u00a0 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Leaving Certificate<\/a> higher-level history paper was very challenging, teachers have said.<\/p>\n

Stephen Tonge, a history teacher at the Institute of Education<\/a>, said students would have looked at previous papers to help guide their revision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis paper lacked some of the staples that many had come to expect: no Anglo-Irish relations, no Eucharistic Congress, no treaty negotiations, no Irish economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tonge said that the examiner plumbed the nooks and niches of the course. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of the contribution of Patrick Pearse and\/or Countess Markievicz will challenge students to fully contextualise these figures rather than reverting to biography,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cTopic five on Northern Ireland diverges from previous papers by inquiring about the Troubles in three of the questions, up from the normal two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary McGrath, Studyclix.ie subject expert and a history teacher at Presentation de La Salle, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, said students will have appreciated the paper rewarded understanding and interpretation over rote learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there were no major shocks, there were also very few questions that could be described as highly predictable,\u201d McGrath said. <\/p>\n

\u201cStudents who focused too heavily on a narrow range of anticipated topics may have found themselves under pressure when making their selections.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leaving Cert French exam gets mixed reaction from teachers: \u2018Odd, challenging, balanced\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

McGrath said the paper was balanced, with students having opportunities to answer questions focused on political change, cultural identity, war, nationalism and social developments. <\/p>\n

Patrick Hickey, a teacher with TheTuitionCentre.ie, described the exam as \u201cvery challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did, however, start well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GAA to 1891 was probably one of the more welcome case studies to appear in the documents-based question, even though many had predicted that the 1885 and 1886 elections would come up instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip Irwin, Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland<\/a> (Asti) subject representative and a teacher at The High School in Dublin, said there were many interesting questions on the paper, but some were quite specific.<\/p>\n

\u201cFascism was examined through the lens of church and state relations under Mussolini and Hitler,\u201d Irwin said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leaving Cert biology paper contains mistake that may have caught out studentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was also an interesting question on whether the United States was more impacted by the Cold War in Europe or the Cold War in Asia. You could argue the case for both, but I would think the Korean War and Vietnam War had a much bigger impact for the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickey said that some of the Northern Ireland questions were pitched narrowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis included a very specific question on Gerry Adams, which gave students fewer easy choices than they might have hoped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The happiest students, he felt, will be those who took on the topic of nation states.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leaving Cert Irish paper two contained more challenging unseen elements than in previous yearsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, a lot of the reliable, anticipated questions turned up, including the classic Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II comparison and the expected emphasis on anti-Semitism and on women. That topic ran closest to form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Hickey said well-prepared, adaptable students will have done well. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt, though, that this exam consistently closed off the rehearsed answer and rewarded, above all, the student who knew the course in depth and could adapt on the spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the ordinary-level paper, McGrath said that it was a fair, balanced and accessible examination that rewarded students who had engaged consistently with the course over the two years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were very few surprises and the paper reflected many of the core themes and personalities that teachers would traditionally emphasise in revision,\u201d she said. \u201cStudents were presented with a broad range of options across both the Irish and European sections, ensuring that candidates with different strengths could find questions that suited them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe documents-based question on the GAA was particularly approachable, dealing with a familiar topic in Irish social history and featuring straightforward comprehension and source evaluation questions,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n

Try these at home: Leaving Cert History, higher level<\/p>\n

Politics and society in Northern Ireland, 1949\u20101993<\/p>\n

What influence did Gerry Adams have on the affairs of Northern Ireland? <\/p>\n

Division and realignment in Europe, 1945\u20101992<\/p>\n

How effective a leader was Margaret Thatcher at home and abroad? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s Leaving Certificate higher-level history paper was very challenging, teachers have said. Stephen Tonge, a history teacher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17163,207572,61,60,3184,43,28205,2055],"class_list":["post-493078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-classroom-to-college","tag-examwatch","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-news","tag-second-level","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493078","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=493078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}