Oxford place for top student Ryan

Head boy and this year's top-achieving A level student at Portadown College Ryan Davison is heading for the dreaming spires of Oxford University, having scored an incredible four A* grades.
Top A Level student at Portadown College Ryan Davison who is off to Oxford University in September, pictured with his great-grandmother Betty Irwin. INPT34-210.Top A Level student at Portadown College Ryan Davison who is off to Oxford University in September, pictured with his great-grandmother Betty Irwin. INPT34-210.
Top A Level student at Portadown College Ryan Davison who is off to Oxford University in September, pictured with his great-grandmother Betty Irwin. INPT34-210.

And no-one is happier than his great-grandmother Betty Irwin, aged 94, now living in Bleary but originally from a village just outside the prestigious university city.

During Ryan’s recent visits to Oxford for interviews and open days, Betty was able to provide a wealth of information on the area which was invaluable to the 18-year-old.

And he was also able to visit the village she grew up in and where his grandmother Maureen was born.

Ryan, who achieved his A* grades in economics, French, history and maths, will read politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. The high-flying student achieved five As at AS level and 10 A*s at GCSE.

He is the only student from Portadown College to go to Oxford or Cambridge this year.

Ryan is the eldest son of Tara and Brian Davison and grandson of Maureen and Jim Davison and Margaret and the late Ernie Thornton.

Betty is originally from Weston on the Green. She met the late Jim Irwin from the Portadown area when he was in the RAF and stationed at the airbase across the road from her house during World War Two. They were married and after the war moved to Bleary.

Betty and Ryan also share the same birthday, May 8, just 76 years apart!

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