Reaction to 2026 Leaving Certificate Irish Paper 1 (Higher Level) by Anna Hughes, Irish teacher at The Institute of Education.
- Open-ended essay questions will have students smiling
- The aural starts with familiar vocabulary from recognisable scenarios by gets more challenging in the final stretch
Paper 1 starts with An Chluastuiscint (the aural) and students usually deem this the most challenging part of the exam. However those who had religiously practiced the past listening tests will find a lot of very familiar vocabulary as the examiner reimagines scenarios from previous years. Those familiar with their numbers, months and names will be able to pick out the pertinent answers across the different pieces and dialects. As is typical, the challenge level increases in Cuid B and Cuid C. Some will have been thrown by “árachas” (insurance) and so struggled to cover every answer. That being said there were lots of places to gather marks as students were able to attempt everything.
The last part of the exam is the compositions and students will have been very happy with the selection on offer. This section is worth 100 marks, 1/6th of the whole grade and so this section can dictate the real challenge of the paper. Most students gravitate towards to the aiste topics and been glad to see that the predicted topic of Irish and Irish culture appeared. Some might initially be surprised by the absence of overt prompts on anticipated areas like education, housing or health care. But those who could decipher “a chuireann isteach ar” as “annoy” will find a wonderfully open-ended question on modern irritants that gave them a platform to air their grievances and show their preparedness. Other titles took a much more focused stance as (c) and (d) tasked student to contextualise an issue within an international scope. Prompt (d) on climate change was a surprise as the environment appeared on last year’s paper and some will have thought the sizable overlap might rule it out from today’s exam. The final aiste on “Sábháilteacht ar lÍne” (safety online) will have tested students with its more limited approach to the topic of tech. But ultimately they only needed one title that suits them and so there really was something for everyone here.
While the aiste titles tend to be more popular than the scéal, those looking to write a short story will have found ample opportunities for creativity with prompt relating to “meas” (respect) and how travel inspires stories. The debate and speech prompts will have suited many in their topics but been potentially limiting in the need to take a definite proposition or opposition stance. The debate on “everybody is treated fairly in Ireland today” will allow students to reuse material planned for other areas (again education, housing and health care can be applied) but the framework of the debate is more limiting than the aiste on annoyances. The speech on the importance of hobbies for young people will have struck a chord with many who can dig into their own experiences.
Overall, this paper had something for everyone and students should leave the exam content that they could attest to the hard work they did in the run up to the paper.