In April, 1961 - just before my 16th birthday - my father opened his own retail business. I went in to help in the shop after school, on Saturdays and during that year's summer holidays. I never went back in September. I just loved working in the…
I started school in Cloughmills Public Elementary School on my fourth birthday. I always felt my mother had taken her first legal opportunity to get me out of the way but she assures me that she felt like the mother in this poem, which was one that…
I would have liked to have gone to Banbridge Academy, my father was against that. He didn't want me getting any idea of leaving home. An aunt of mine was very interested in me and encouraged me to go to Rathfriland Technical College (as it is now…
Nathan and Shelly were brother and sister. He was just 2 years of age and Shelley was 4 when we moved to Taughmonagh. They were our next door neighbours. It wasn't long till both of them made themselves at home in our house where Ann, my Wife,…
What education I had up to the age of sixty was in P Elementary Schools. I took a notion at that age to do a six month course at Rupert Stanley College and was able to get a certificate with good marks. I received a B1 which really gave me the urge…
In 1992 I started a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management at the Irish Management Institute. This course lasted for three years and I enjoyed the entire experience immensely, except for the examinations. It was about thirty six years since I last…
The college Principal, with assistance from the Ministry of Education, identified a team of 7 to work with me on the project, which became known as the Primary Mathematics Upgrading Project (PMUP). The oldest member of the PMUP team was Gasper, who…
We decided to accept the ODA study grant. The University of London accepted me for a place on a Masters Degree course at Chelsea College, which later became part of King's College. I attended lectures in a building in Stamford Bridge, which is…
I fell and cut my knees on my first morning going to Johnstown national school. Johnstown school was in Delvin parish - it has since been closed. We were living in Taughmon parish. It was to Johnstown that daddy had gone for the full three years and…
