Friday’s Top Stories: Leaving Cert Results and GP Shortages

Results from the 2024 Leaving Cert reveal treatment of grades to maintain elevated CAO points. The majority of this year’s students’ grades were reportedly manipulated to keep consistent with the outstanding achievements of previous years.

Education Minister, Norma Foley, gave instructions for this year’s results to align with the previous record-breaking years. This directive has witnessed a rise in over two-thirds or 68% of students’ grades.

Paul O’Donovan, the celebrated Olympian, is less interested in fame and more focused on achieving victories.

The Leaving Cert of 2024 is set to be the final year benefitting from this grade inflation. The implications of this for the succeeding batch of students remains a subject of discussion.

Recent updates from Ireland indicate that only two of its counties meet the satisfactory care level as determined by the World Health Organization due to adequate general practitioners according to research by the Irish College of GPs.

A staggering 260 hopeful buyers have applied for the initial 16 homes in the Oscar Traynor Woods, an ‘affordable’ home ownership scheme by Dublin City Council.

As per the law enforcement authorities, a sharp rise in investment fraud has led to the theft of “staggering amounts” of money with over €13.5 million lost just this year.

A post-mortem carried out on a man’s body found in Co Louth has dismissed suspicious death.

According to the weather forecast, rain will pass towards the northeast early today, with calmer winds to follow. Sunny spells marked by intermittent showers, mainly in the west initially, will encompass more areas in the afternoon. Expect temperatures to peak at between 14 and 18 degrees. Overnight, there will be continuous showers, some intense or lasting, with potential hail and isolated thunderstorms, notably in the northwest. Some regions could face localised flooding. The mercury will bottom out at between 8 and 10 degrees.

World
Kamala Harris celebrated her ‘improbable voyage’ as she claimed the Democratic nomination in a buoyant party atmosphere. On the concluding night, the last address was on this ‘improbable journey’ that defined this jubilant Democratic conference of transformation.

The Big Read
‘Awards for women should expand to include wider categories, such as “Just about Coping”’. Each iteration of the Rose of Tralee prompts the same enquiry: is the festival past its sell-by date? How about if we acknowledged the extent of laudable achievements made by women on a daily basis through a range of categories in a different award system? For instance, the ‘I’ll Count to Five’ gong for mothers who successfully tackle a solo evening hour with a hyperactive child post-birthday party, ponders Brianna Parkins.

Opinion
Lara Marlowe ponders over the enigma at the core of homelessness which seems unsolvable.
Diarmaid Ferriter comments on Nell McCafferty’s life of defying societal standards and her ceaseless questioning of them.

Business
Intel braces itself for an influx of applications for rewarding severance packages at its Irish branch. The tech giant’s Irish workforce are preparing to process a wave of applications from employees wishing to depart from the company before the upcoming Friday deadline.

Sports
Ciarán Frawley embarks on the new season rejuvenated – and with aspirations of playing at 10. A simplification of the previous extended season for Ciarán Frawley of both Leinster and Ireland would be that it pivoted for him around three drop goals.

Radio Review
Joe Duffy encounters tales of adolescent misbehaviour amid the whizz of fireworks. Previously, the sound of crackers in August paralleled the arrival of the spring’s first cuckoo: it signalled a transition of seasons and the early influx of pre-Halloween fireworks gave mischievous youngsters a head start to perturb their neighbours with the impending arrival of autumn.

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Written by Ireland.la Staff

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