'We only had the paper for a minute'
Sean Kennedy was one of the first students to raise the alarm after being given the wrong English Leaving Cert paper on Tuesday at his school, St Oliver's in Drogheda
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AS he sat nervously in the front row of a packed exam hall, Sean Kennedy had no idea that his name was about to be written into the annals of Leaving Cert history.
The 17-year-old from Duleek, Co Meath was anxiously awaiting the first exam, which in keeping with tradition was to be English paper 1, composition and comprehension.
The annual student guessing game about poets and Shakespeare was set to continue for another 24 hours, before Paper 2 was unveiled.
But all of that was to change for the 33 students in the centre at St Oliver's Community College, Drogheda, Co Louth.
"Myself and another student called Sarah were just sitting in our seats waiting for papers to be given out, when the superintendent called us up," recalled Sean yesterday.
"He had (a) pack of exam papers and asked us to sign that they were still sealed. They were, and we both signed.
"He opened them up and gave them out face down and told us we could start the exam. We turned them over and a few students said 'This is paper 2'.
"He looked at the papers and took them back and went out to get paper 1.
"We only had them for about a minute. People flicked through it, and a few different people saw different things.
"I opened the first page and saw 'Macbeth' and that parts of the questions were about deception. Other people got the poets: Keats, Longley, Emily Bishop. And others the comparative study.
"He said we should turn them back face-down and he would collect them. He went around quickly and collected them and said: 'Sorry about that'.
When the new papers were distributed, everyone went quiet and "got stuck in", according to Sean.
Parents
The superintendent made no further reference to the earlier events.
After the exam, students went home and Sean was among those who decided to tell their parents. "They didn't really believe me."
But students from other schools, eager to get ahead of the pack, were all too ready to believe. And the internet-savvy generation was not going to keep it a secret for very long.
"I was texting friends I know from around the village and told them what was coming up."
Sean knuckled down to some study for English paper 2 -- focusing on certain poets, of course. "Before that, I wasn't sure what to be studying. (Now) I knew what to study and I went and started studying."
Later, he started getting texts saying the exam was switching to another date. So yesterday, instead of sitting an English paper for which he was well prepared, "I am studying German instead".
- Katherine Donnelly
