Not the Retiring Type.

Three years ago, much to my surprise, I reached retirement age. Suddenly I went from a job where I had spent over forty years learning a new play every five or six weeks, to the prospect of spending the morning reading the Irish Times and doing the crossword, then watching Carol Vorderman and Countdown in the afternoon, with a few games of golf thrown in to keep the rust at bay. I knew that there had to be a bit more than that to the last quarter of my life, and my life-long lucky streak held out. I had enrolled in an adult education course in modern Irish in NUI Maynooth, but had to abandon the second half of the course when I was asked to play “Da” in Derry. But later on I signed up to do a Diploma course in Irish, spread over two years in NUIM. The university experience was great, even though it was only once a week. I had never been to a university before; truth to tell, I had never been in secondary school even; I started work as an apprentice in the Air Corps when I was seventeen.
During the first year of the course I was asked to do a five month stint in Fair City, which I agreed to do, but I had a clause inserted in the contract which allowed me to finish at 3pm on Tuesdays, which gave me time to get to Maynooth from Donnybrook in time for my class. The classes in Irish were arduous enough. We would do a two hour grammar session followed by an hour of literature, and every few weeks we spent a whole Saturday on campus, with a variety of lecturers speaking on their pet subjects. At the end of each year we sat a three hour exam. I heard about the Mature Student opportunities in Maynooth, made some enquiries, read all the literature, found the prospect of going to university both challenging and somewhat daunting, and applied to NUIM for a place. I also had to apply to the CAO. I was accepted by both. My exam results came out and I had passed.
In early September, along with hundreds of graduates, I had a great day when my Dioplóma sa Ghaeilge was given to me. There were people being conferred with Bachelor degrees, Masters, and Doctorates, my Diploma was a humble affair but I was as proud as punch.
Two weeks later I had my first lecture as a full time undergraduate. I am taking a Double Honours Bachelor of Arts degree. My subjects are demanding but fascinating. I am studying Modern Irish, Greek and Roman Civilization, and Medieval Irish and Celtic History. If I make it as far as second year I will continue with the two Irish subjects. I have completed one semester, I have my first exams in a weeks time, so the nose is to the grindstone at the moment. But I am enjoying every minute of it, the knowledge available to us, the studying, the variety of my life. The lecturers are brilliant, and as far as my much, much younger classmates are concerned, well, they have restored my faith in the innate intelligence, courtesy and decency of our young citizens. They are great. H.G.Wells said that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. My money is on the former winning the contest.

Clive Geraghty.
January 2009.


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