St Finian's students happy with results

The Leaving Cert students of St. Finian’s College, Mullingar were up and at ‘em early on Wednesday morning of last week, to pick up the results of what, for most of them, will be their final secondary school exam.The class of 2010 were greeted at the Longford Road school by the President of the College, Fr. Paul Connell, who met with students individually to present them with their results.Collinstown’s Andrew Daly was happy with his results, but is admirably laid back. “I did well, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” he said. “I have nothing in mind at the moment. I’m going to see what happens.”By contrast, Conor Clery, from Grange, Mullingar, knows to a tee where his post-Leaving Cert path is laid out.Conor, who got 315 points, was delighted with his results. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to DIT to do Logisitics and Supply Chain Management,” he said.Brian McGowan of Brookfield, Mullingar, is another man who was “happy out” after his brush with the Leaving Cert. He’s likely to go to Galway next year to study Business Computing and Digital Media, while his classmate, Mark Dinnegan of Willowbrook, Mullingar is hoping to go to Athlone IT to try his hand at computer software studies.Dublin Road, Mullingar man Kenneth Rabbitt was very happy with his final tally of points, landing a total of 520. He hopes to study Physiotherapy in either UCD or Trinity College.Kevin Lynch, also from Mullingar, intends to repeat his Leaving Cert next year, with a place on a university Medicine course firmly in his sights.“I’m not sure where I’m going, I’ll have to see when the places come out,” said David McCormack from Ballinea, who got 510 points. “I’d like to do Science somewhere in Dublin, either UCD or Trinity.”As a former boarding school with a national reputation, St. Finian’s is home not only to students from Mullingar, but from other areas of the country.Harry Hudson-Taylor, a native of Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, started off as a boarder at St. Finian’s. He is “very happy” with his haul of 405 points, and is keeping his fingers crossed for a Computer Science place at DIT Kevin Street.Peter Manning from Kilcock, Co. Kildare, is a talented musician and a student of the Schola Cantorum at St. Finian’s. “I’m happy with the results. I got what I need, and I’m hoping to do Arts in Maynooth,” he said, and with NUIM just a few miles from Kilcock, Peter will spend his third level years much closer to home. Mullingar man Ross Finn, meanwhile, said that he is “delighted” with his results, and intends to go to Cavan to study multimedia Web development.Another Brookfield resident, John Lucey, got on “very well”, and has his mind set on doing Arts in Maynooth; his friend Martynas Ramonas of Raithín, Mullingar, “got on pretty good”, and is heading for a post-Leaving Cert course in Carlow.