Irish Independent/Times Exam Diaries (Should be ashamed!)

PrivateEye

I don't care if people spend all their money on ****ing pogs, the fact is she names
*the brand
*the cost

of a pair of SHOES when talking about her French exam. It's irrelevant.

As has been pointed out before, its obvious enough her trip to Sex and the City went straight to her head, and now she's Little Miss SJP of the Times, so the high heels and the rest are essential,darling.

As for what it has to do with us, the Times is supposed to be a high quality newspaper- it normally is, with people like Frank McNally and occasional contributers like Vincent Browne. Even when they give the young folk a shot, the standard should be good (i.e the school mag competition) NOBODY should have to read about Laura Bradys shoes when eating their corn flakes- not least on the exam page.

I say relegate her to the magazine, with Roisin Ingle and the sort. Happy days. Shes clearly not a bad writer, she was just a bad choice for the exam diary- that's seems to be the main feeling here? Some kind of young fashionista for the magazine maybe.

White-Teeth

Okay, so it's all over. However, before everyone rides off into the sunset, there's just a moment to reflect.

I know there are a couple of threads on here about the infamous Laura Brady (loike, roysh, etc.). However, this thread directs its fury at the Irish Times. What were they thinking? How on earth did they think a D4 princess (who's really very pompous and downright arrogant) who's doing the LC for the THIRD time could relate to the ordinary student? In fact, her aim appears to have been to make students feel bad.

Someone pulled someone strings big time. Judging by the reaction on message boards, through word-of-mouth, and letters to the paper (see below), a lot of people are very angry.

Well done, the Independent! Maybe next year the Times could grow a spine and not bow to the will of the D4 mummies and daddies? One can dream, I suppose.

PS, the reaction:

Exam Diary hits a sore point

Madam, – I am one of the 51,000 students currently sweating through the Leaving Cert exams. In previous years I have enjoyed reading a student’s Exam Diary in The Irish Times, but in the past few days I have grown increasingly frustrated with the diary of this year’s writer, Laura Brady.

Admittedly, her bravery in sitting the Leaving Cert for a third time arouses a certain admiration and there is no doubt she will wholly deserve her points. I wish, however, she would spare a thought for those of us undertaking these trying and testing examinations for the first time.

As you can imagine my satisfaction with my 12-page English paper was somewhat diminished on reading about the abundance of Laura’s 25-page submission. I had thought that in the Exam Diary I would find some sense of solidarity and consolation, but unfortunately Ms Brady seems all too keen to differentiate herself from her peers.

Maybe, in my panicked and stressful state, I am failing to pick up on the humour in her columns. However with little anecdotes such as “I felt like I had 200 points tucked under my pillow”, I suspect I’m not the only one to miss the joke. – Yours, etc,

REBECCA CAHILL,

Edmonstown,

Ardee,

Co Louth.

Madam, – While Laura Brady delights in trivialising the stress and pressure many Leaving Cert students are feeling at this time, maybe she should have approached the past week with more respect for the gravity of the state exams.

As a third-time candidate, striving for those all-important points to achieve her goal of studying medicine, Ms Brady shocks me with her devil-may-care attitude. Her references to her unbelievable self-assuredness (200 points are, apparently, already tucked under her pillow) combined with her love of Sex and the City and all things girly and light, make me wonder how dedicated she really is to pursuing this dream of saving lives and healing the sick. But that is personal and, therefore, none of my business. Nor is it any of my business that she sleeps in a baroque bed, or that she can afford to splurge close to €600 on shoes. Bring back Miroslawa Gorecka, or someone with her earnest nature and kind words.

Maybe Laura Brady is included in the Exam Times page to provide comic relief? If so, job well done. She has powerfully depicted the stereotype of a South Dublin princess. – Yours, etc,

S. O’CARROLL,

Tralee,

Co Kerry.

Madam,- There’s a marked contrast between Laura Brady’s lifestyle and that of your columnist Kathryn Holmquist as depicted recently in your paper.

If Laura wants to continue having breakfast in posh places and paying €575 for one “divine” pair of shoes, she’d better consider a career outside newspapers, unless she has sights on your post and salary, Madam.

How did we survive in boarding school in the 1960s, when a treat during the exams was an HB choc ice, if the nuns opened the school shop? We had no newspaper articles and radio programmes with post-mortems on each day’s papers, and no Mammies about either. But we survived! – Yours, etc,

SHEELAGH COYLE,

Derryguile,

Mountmellick,

Co Laois.

Piste

Wah wah wah a girl has more money than me and is making me jealous wah wah wah she's not going to fail maths like me so I can't relate to her

White-Teeth

Piste wrote: »

Wah wah wah a girl has more money than me and is making me jealous wah wah wah she's not going to fail maths like me so I can't relate to her

Actually, I'm saying this on behalf of Leaving Cert students. I passed maths, dear. (PS: Unlike her, it didn't take me three attempts to get 545 points or whatever it is.) And I just graduated with a master's degree.

And I could care less how much money she has, to be honest. Though it is quite amusing that aforementioned money was used to put her through the Institute thrice.

White-Teeth

PrivateEye wrote: »

I say relegate her to the magazine, with Roisin Ingle and the sort. Happy days. Shes clearly not a bad writer, she was just a bad choice for the exam diary- that's seems to be the main feeling here? Some kind of young fashionista for the magazine maybe.

No, I can't even allow her that. She's an awful writer. She really is. It's infantile stuff she spews out.

thefinalstage

Piste wrote: »

Wah wah wah a girl has more money than me and is making me jealous wah wah wah she's not going to fail maths like me so I can't relate to her

What a bitch...the articles were below par and the writings of this girl alienated the regular rank and file student. They are as far as I can tell, there to help students realise that others are in the same boat.

EDIT* Through the institute three times? Damn....I hope she does not become a doctor. Imagine her diagnosing a patient and taking three attempts to get it right...

Timans

White-Teeth wrote: »

Actually, I'm saying this on behalf of Leaving Cert students. I passed maths, dear. (PS: Unlike her, it didn't take me three attempts to get 545 points or whatever it is.) And I just graduated with a master's degree.

And I could care less how much money she has, to be honest. Though it is quite amusing that aforementioned money was used to put her through the Institute thrice.

LOL.

Piste, you just got served.

PrivateEye

I resorted to buying the Brit broadsheets after a while, because Madam Editor lost her marbles there for the last two weeks and that + the above points was enough for me.

Saying that, I think we've gone into Laura Brady overkill now, and with all due respect to you White-Teeth (because I know exactly where you're coming from) we could probably do without this thread. I do see your point about directing it at the Times instead, but to be honest none of the anger should ever have been directed at Laura (I admit to taking pot-shots myself!) It's the Staunton/Delaney type of situation- where you get somebody PUT in a bad role.

The Irish Times is said to be an ABC1 (as in upper-middle class) kind of newspaper- and if they want to shift that image, they are REALLY going about it the wrong way. A 600 yoyo pair of shoes is a relic of the Celtic Tiger.

It's not about being jealous of her.
I'm not jealous of the ****ing Olsen Twins, I don't care how much money somebody has- I've enough money to go out with my friends, go to a match on a Friday night or have a few pints- happy days. Beyond that it's irrelevant to me. I just think Laura Brady should not have been given the platform she was, because she failed as an exam-writer (as I said in the other thread- shes not a bad writer at all, but she'd do better in a fashion magazine sadly)


So White-Teeth, I think you're spot on here- but I'm worried about petrol on a fire and all that :pac:

mattfender

Whats this all about?

White-Teeth

thelastangryman wrote: »

What a bitch...the articles were below par and the writings of this girl alienated the regular rank and file student. They are as far as I can tell, help students realise that others are in the same boat.QUOTE]

Exactly, that's why I'm so angry. I remember the LC was so stressful and upsetting. I remember the feeling of thinking I completely screwed up a paper. Imagine, then, opening up your Times, and reading the writings of this girl? "I have two hundred points under my pillow." Oh, puh-lease.

GA361

White-Teeth wrote: »

Actually, I'm saying this on behalf of Leaving Cert students. I passed maths, dear. (PS: Unlike her, it didn't take me three attempts to get 545 points or whatever it is.) And I just graduated with a master's degree.

And I could care less how much money she has, to be honest. Though it is quite amusing that aforementioned money was used to put her through the Institute thrice.

She does sound a bit condescending,uncomforting allright.

thusspakeblixa

She really REALLY irritates me!
But, then again so does this ''South Dublin is rich'' stereotype. Please, I urge you. come to Tallaght or Crumlin.
...but yeah it just irritates me that she's clearly there because of her family connections etc.
She has no connection whatsoever with around 80% of people doing their Leaving Certificate

BJC

Why are you so bothered by this white-teeth?
Yes, Laura Brady is incredibly condescending, yes she seems like the typical horrifically mutated spawn of the celtic tiger and yes, she seems downright unpleasant and honestly, very detached from real life and the plight of real students.
But guess what, we don't live in a Communist state and she can spout whatever bullsh*t she wants in whatever paper that lets her. If it effects you so direly then it's your problem not the irish Times'. Who, by the way will probably sell an extra ten or twenty papers in response to this thread.

PurpleFistMixer

Do we really need three threads on this topic?

philologos

Piste wrote: »

To all the people moaning about her spending money, not the people moaning about her WIRITNG about spending money, just bitching about the fact that she SPENT lots of money...


why do you care?


Seriously, what has it to do with you?

I don't care how much money she spends, I just happen to think that it's not relevant to the Leaving Cert. I agree with others when she talked about "200 points under the pillow" that it's just plain rude and arrogant, and puts other students off.

Aoibheann

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Do we really need three threads on this topic?

But of course! It is of utmost importance that we complain as much as is at all possible. *nods*

Otherwise.. yes, her articles were largely irrelevant for LC students (Also, just to stick my oar in - I don't think anyone was jealous of her money or anything of the sort!); yes, the Times haven't a clue but ffs it's been done to death now, give it a rest!

rebel girl 15

I read her intro piece, she should be shot!!!!!!!!!!!! How mad is she doing it three times! I'm going through it once, and if I don't get my first choice, I;ll take my second!

The Irish Times should be took to the cleaners!!!!!!!

What the hell were they trying to do? Certainly to sell papers! I'm involved in journalism for the past three years, and to do that to the other 56,000 candidates, and to have her blase attitude being rewarded like that makes me sick! Every other LC in the country having to read that, going through it the first time!

And do you know what is going to happen - like so many other college students in the country, she is going to go into her course and hate it, thinking that its a great job, when in fact she will find it horrible - imagine having to go to a person like that if you are sick - she'd end up broke!!!!!

She is a product of our new society - driven by money and status,

And why does she refer to herself in the third person?

turgon

Well maybe she really wants to do medicine. I don't know her that well, but I pray that her only motivation isn't money (which, for a lot of people doing medicine, it is. Also cause its the highest course they think its class. Which its not imo.). Money can only sustain you for so long. TBH, I don't know if everyone should be giving her such a hard time, they've never even met her. Her writings must be really bad.

Anyone quotes from her to prove the accusations???

rebel girl 15

They make her out to be some sort of a martyr, going through in three times - fair enough if she has her heart set on medicine, but from my reading of her piece on skool.ie - its all about money

Piste

White-Teeth wrote: »

Actually, I'm saying this on behalf of Leaving Cert students. I passed maths, dear. (PS: Unlike her, it didn't take me three attempts to get 545 points or whatever it is.) And I just graduated with a master's degree.

And I could care less how much money she has, to be honest. Though it is quite amusing that aforementioned money was used to put her through the Institute thrice.

Nah I was more referring to the people writing the letters in to the Irish Times complaining that she wasn't your "typical" LC student.

JC 2K3

BarryDoodles wrote: »

Ladies and Gentlemen, am I right that you dislike the girl because shes better than you?

She's repeating the Leaving for the third time. If that isn't epic failure I don't know what is...

I got more than her my first time round, was in a public school and got no grinds, extra revision books or anything else.

Therefore me>her.

I haven't read many of her articles but she seems like a deluded, spoiled idiot to me.

Piste wrote: »

Wah wah wah a girl has more money than me and is making me jealous wah wah wah she's not going to fail maths like me so I can't relate to her

I think it's more the fact that LC students feel hard done by when they're being represented in a major national paper by an overtly materialistic girl who comes across as having her head in the clouds and is entirely non-indicative of a normal LC student.

Repeating the LC twice and having your parents pay for you to go to a very expensive school is not admirable, and in fact makes a mockery of the whole LC system. To me, as a 19 year old, I feel saddened that not only does there exist such a person so out of touch with reality, but that she is put up on a pedestal, essentially being rewarded for her failure, whereas thousands of other LC students who would have loved the oppertunity are denied the chance.

A-Bit-Dodge

Oh dear...whats gone wrong here??

Why is it such a big problem that the majority of students "can't relate" to this Laura Brady person?

I'll admit she's making herself out to look like a bit of a queen but was it so wrong for the Irish Times to have a bit of diversity in the diaries this year? Fair enough, she is crazy to be doing it 3 times but thats her choice and if the Irish Times want to make a case study out her fetish for repeating then so be it. You don't know, maybe there is a few others out there who are doing the leaving for the second third fourth whatever time. Don't you think they might like to open up the paper and see someone like them who is passionate enough about their course that they'd go through this year (of hell btw) time after time till they get the points? Think about the minority for a change people... and more importantly...

...Lighten up!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

A-Bit-Dodge

JC 2K3 wrote: »

Repeating the LC twice and having your parents pay for you to go to a very expensive school is not admirable, and in fact makes a mockery of the whole LC system. To me, as a 19 year old, I feel saddened that not only does there exist such a person so out of touch with reality, but that she is put up on a pedestal, essentially being rewarded for her failure

I wouldnt, personally, call 545 points a failure...

JC 2K3

If you're going for medicine, it is.

turgon

True. Lay off guys. Laura, I love you.

eoin2nc

Who cares now? Her diary is finished and the LC will be soon but a distant memory.

turgon

Amen to that!

Parsley

A-Bit-Dodge wrote: »

I wouldnt, personally, call 545 points a failure...

After spending FOUR years covering a two year course? I would.

Kgirl

I know laura, she is a lovely person and is so clearly better than those of you moaning about her and insulting, but then i'm judging you on what your writing, just like you are doing of her and let me tell y'all- she painted a much nicer picture of herself in her articles than you lot are doing of yourselves.
So in actual fact JC 2K3 Laura>you! http://static.boards.ie/vbulletin/images/smilies/tongue.gif
Another point, she was 16 first time doin her lc and was in no way ready, and i admire her for repeating this year after missing out on her course by only 10 pts.

Kgirl

Ooops! Not sure if that icon came out! (classic icons never let down!)