Last year, Cara Darmody from Ardfinnan in south Tipperary sat the Junior Cert maths exam at the age of just 11, as part of a campaign by her family to highlight a deficit in services for children with autism.
This year, she followed through on her latest idea and was rewarded today with a superb result - Leaving Cert maths, in which she scored an enviable 97%.
But she's not finished yet. Cara’s two younger brothers Neil, 10, and John, 6, have severe autism and all of her achievements have been with the aim of highlighting the roadblocks and issues that families like hers come up against when trying to navigate the educational, healthcare and social infrastructure of this country.
She has travelled to Leinster House weekly over the last six months to meet politicians and highlight the campaign and try to influence change, and also raised thousands of euro which will be used to help young people with autism as they negotiate life’s obstacles.
"I did it because autistic and disabled children in this country get treated absolutely disgracefully. I’ve gone up to the Government many times to ask for change, but that change has not come.
"I am not going to stop until I get the change that is needed and should have been made a long, long time ago. I’m doing it to help families who are struggling, some families are afraid to speak up and some families have people who can’t speak up, and that’s really sad and I think the Government are treating these families disgracefully and I want that to change."
Getting ready for the Leaving Cert exam itself involved a lot of hard work, she said, with her Dad, Mark helping her along the way.
"Studying every single day after school," she said of the months in the lead-in. "It definitely took a lot of time. I spent in total almost 500 extra hours after school studying for it."
And that was after she returned every day from her "normal" school day in national school in Ardfinnan. Today, the day she got her Leaving result, was also her first day in secondary school, at the Loreto Convent in Clonmel.
For parents Noelle and Mark, it’s been a nerve-wracking but also a proud time as they encouraged and watched Cara studying and preparing for the Leaving Cert maths exam.
"We probably thought it was a step too far for her but, look, she did it, she got 97%, it’s just an amazing mark for her," Mark Darmody said.
"I think people know, this is more than just an academic result. She’s gone to Leinster House every week for six months just to make politicians change things in the academic world… Finally, maybe she can get the change that she wants, but it’s a big day for her."
I want to be the Taoiseach and I want to make these problems go away
Noelle remembers "a lot of sighing coming from the dining room" during those hours of study, but it was all worth it.
"I’m delighted, over the moon for them. It was a huge undertaking, and on her achievements I’m so, so proud. Her two brothers are both non-verbal, they have level three autism and a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of families in the same boat that we’re in, a lot of people cannot access services, there isn’t private services there, then you’ve the questions, who do you book, what service is right for your child. I’m so, so proud of her that she decided to help somebody else, and she took on such a massive undertaking.
"I’m in absolute awe of my own child, she’s an inspiration to everybody."
If anyone thinks that, now that the Leaving Cert campaign is done and dusted and Cara has got her result, she’s going to settle into secondary school life and take things quietly, they are wrong.
"When I get older, I want to be the Taoiseach and I want to make these problems go away," she says, "and I’m going to change it, because what’s happening here is wrong and people with a disability, autism, intellectual needs, any of those kinds of problems, they should not be treated like this, they should not be treated in the disgraceful way that they are treated."
