David Flyn,Evan Smyth and Dylan Chandler pictured after they received the results of their junior cert examination at the Larkin Community College,Champions Ave , Cathal Brugha street ,Dublin.Pic Tom Burke 10/9/2014

Morgane Daumy,Amber O'Shea,Isha Rughoonauth and Elena Diana Pascariu after they received the results of their junior cert examination at Mount Carmel Secondary School,King's Inn Street,Dublin.Pic Tom Burke 10/9/2014

Hana Tesarikova,Czech Republic,Petra Pohl,Hungary,Egija Auzina,Latvia,Paulina Posladek,Poland and Morganne Davmy,France after they received the results of their junior cert examination at Mount Carmel Secondary School,King's Inn Street,Dublin.Pic Tom Burke 10/9/2014

Hana Tesarikova,Czech Republic,Petra Pohl,Hungary,Egija Auzina,Latvia,Paulina Posladek,Poland and Morganne Davmy,France after they received the results of their junior cert examination at Mount Carmel Secondary School,King's Inn Street,Dublin.Pic Tom Burke 10/9/2014

Amy Finnegan rings home after she received the results of her junior cert examination at Mount Carmel Secondary School,King's Inn Street,Dublin. Pic Tom Burke 10/9/2014

Lauren Byrne,Rhona Heffernan,Erika Kelly Hughes and Andrea Kennedy who received the results of their Junior Cert examination at Mount Carmel Secondary School,King's Inn Street,Dublin; girls are still doing better than boys in the examination

Saoirse Lonergan (16) scored 12As in her Junior Cert pictured at Loreto secondary school in Fermoy, Co Cork Pic Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Saoirse Lonergan (16) scored 12As in her Junior Cert pictured at Loreto secondary school in Fermoy, Co Cork Pic Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Saoirse Lonergan (16) scored 12As in her Junior Cert pictured at Loreto secondary school in Fermoy, Co Cork Pic Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Florrie with RTE Radio One's Brenda Donohue and her teacher.

A 78-year-old woman who returned to education after retirement received her Junior Cert results this morning along with 60,000 other pupils throughout the country.

Florrie Canning, from Raheny in Dublin, sat the higher level Mathematics exam in June and was overjoyed to discover she has scored a B.

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Speaking on RTE Radio One’s Mooney Show, Florrie said she was overjoyed with the results after two years of hard work.

“I could bawl crying. I feel almost better than if I had won the lotto."

“I took it so seriously. I had myself up the walls and sometimes I thought ‘would I ever get the grasp of it.’"

“I studied every day of the week. I didn’t look at the telly and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it,” she said.

Florrie left school as a young teenager to take up a job in Fullers selling cakes and sweets but said she always enjoyed school.

“I left the College of Commerce in Rathmines when I was 14 or 15. I got an interview and a job the next day."

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“I loved school and if I could I have stayed I would have but my mother raised eight children and was eager to get me to work,” she said.

The determined pensioner revealed that she was relieved to have achieved what she had set out to do, despite some people thinking she was mad.

“Everyone thinks I’m nuts. I’m so over the moon. Two years of my hard work definitely paid off.,” she said.

“I advise everybody to get education. Put your mind to it. Put your head down and get on with it.

“If someone turned around and said would I like to do a law course, I would nearly give it a go. I would always like to see what I could do,” she said.

Out of 60,000 pupils who collected their Junior Certificate results today, 600 are in adult education.

Online Editors