Published: Wednesday, 25th August, 2010 5:00pm

Cavan's golden girls

by Michael Cryan

Pru Dasson.
Pic by==: 97

The spirit of celebration of the Cavan Fleadh was very much permeated into the lives of many people who did their Leaving Cert locally. Three happy girls had all their hard work rewarded when they gained over 600 points in their exams. They were Loreto College students Pru Dasson (right) and Deirdre Kelly and Dublin girl, Niamh Nic Uileagoid, who was in Cavan for the fleadh.

Pride of place went to Niamh who was competing in the harp in the Grúpa Cheoil in the All-Ireland Fleadh. From Rathfarnham, Niamh was delighted when she learned that she had obtained eight A1s. An excited Niamh said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to have achieved these marks. I never thought I would get such good mark and I'm over the moon."

A student of Colaiste Iosagain in Booterstown, Niamh puts her success down to lots of hard work and study. She did supervised study at school from 4pm to 7pm, three days a week, which was a great help to her.

Irish, English, Maths, French, German, Chemistry, Biology and Music were the subjects she completed. Niamh hopes to study English and Music in Trinity. She is also an accomplished harp player and had competed at a number of fleadh's down through the years.

"I'm impressed with Cavan as venue and we have been made very welcome by everyone."

Cavan girl Pru Dason was also "thrilled" to obtain six A1 grades and one A2, which will enable her to study medicine in Queens University in Belfast. "I never dreamt that I would get such high marks and they were unexpected."

It has always been her ambition to study medicine and she hopes to become a GP or gynaecologist.

Pru is the only child of Dr. Mohandas and Mini Dason and again she too put her success down to hard study. They reside in Loreto Woods and have been living in Cavan since 2000. Prior to that they lived in Naas for eight years.

The subjects Pru completed were Irish, English, French, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths. She obtained her A2 in Irish. A student of Loreto College, Pru was one of 140 pupils to sit the exam.

"Overall the college had very good Leaving Cert results with Deirdre Kelly also obtaining 600 points, while there were a lot of girls with 570 and 580 points."

Being an only child, it will be wrench for Pru to leave her parents for Belfast but she is looking forward to the challenge. "I will be home for the weekends as all my friends are here."

Her parents were delighted with her success and very pleased. "Belfast will be a big challenge for her, but she will cope," said her mother Mini.

With her father a doctor it was natural that Pru followed in his footsteps. "She had her mind made up it was the only course she wanted to do," said her mother.

The third girl to gain 600 points is a thrilled Deirdre Kelly from Billis in Cavan town who is now heading for Trinity to study speech and language therapy. "I couldn't believe it when I got my results that I achieved 600 points."

The daughter of Padraig and Carmel Kelly, Deirdre is looking forward to Trinity as she will be joined by her friend Elaine McCabe, as well as a number of other school friends from Loreto College.

Deirdre sat Irish, English, French, Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Accountancy. She admitted she studied for her Leaving Cert but didn't overdo it.

The eldest child Deirdre worked in SuperValu during the summer and also attended the Oxegen Festival in Punchestown, which was "cool".

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