Students Celebrating results
This year's candidates performed extremely well, with more honours grades awarded in many subjects.
Almost 60,000 students received their results which show there were more As and Bs awarded in the core subjects of English, Irish and Maths.
For the country's adolescents this is their first experience of a formal State exam.
The number sitting the Junior Cert this year was down slightly on previous years.
The past three years' results point to a trend away from the study of the more traditional languages, French and German.
The number studying them is decreasing while the number studying Spanish and Italian, while still small, is on the up.
Candidates can access their results on the Internet, with an examination number and a unique candidate PIN, at www.examinations.ie.
