Guesswork, hard slog, rote learning and avoidance among advice from RTÉ broadcasters for the Leaving Cert Irish exam.
Comhairle úsáideach don scrúdú Gaeilge na hArdteistiméireachta. Broadcaster Teresa Mannion sat her Leaving Certificate ten years ago and made the mistake of trying to predict what questions will be on the paper. Her advice is to get stuck into studying the subject matter,
Know your poems and stories.
Similar advice comes from Brian Graham, presenter with young peoples programme 'Scratch Saturday', whose abiding memory of the exam was being
Scared stiff.
His ‘Scratch Saturday' colleague Brian Reddin remembers his Irish teacher as an imposing man whose preferred subject was
'Peig', day in, day out.
Students would understand Peig Sayers’ autobiography better if they visited the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht, believes ‘Cúrsaí’ presenter and reporter Bríd Óg Ní Bhuachalla. Her advice for students is not to be too rigid in their answers.
Gan eagla a bheith orthu a bpearsantacht fhéin a chur in iúl sa scrúdú.
Read the exam paper and include everything you have ever learned in your questions is the recommendation from RTÉ newsreader Eamonn Lawlor. Niamh Walsh from the ‘Jo-Maxi’ team can only remember proverbs, and broadcaster Joe Duffy recalls using the text in the exam paper to check spelling and placement of fadas.
‘Cúrsaí’ presenter and reporter Seán Ó Mealóid would like to see ‘Peig’ being made more accessible to students, while journalist and television presenter Anne Marie Hourihan instructs viewers that they should avoid the Leaving Certificate oral Irish exam by any possible means,
Get a note from your mother. Plead insanity.
This episode of ‘Scaoil Amach An Bobailín’ was broadcast on 31 March 1991.
‘Scaoil Amach An Bobailín’ was a show featuring comedy sketches, rock music and debate on social/political issues. Presenters were Seán Bán Breathnach, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí and Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh. The first programme was broadcast on 7 October 1990 and the series ran until 1992.
