Getting an education
Anthony Murphy reflects on the struggle to obtain an education
I was deeply affected by Ian S Woods’ report on education in Ireland (30 August). In my current third career, as a would-be playwright/memoirist, I was reminded of a line I attributed to a character: ‘You Irish. You’ll remember yourselves to death’. As a Republic of Ireland national and, for some time now, a United Kingdom citizen, I found Ian’s report brought back many memories. There is an ever-increasing socio-political cliché here in England whereby public figures (usually of what used to be called ‘the Left’) assert that: ‘I am the first person in my family to go to university’. In my own case I was the first (because I was the youngest) person in my own family, of eight children, to attend what was called ‘secondary school’ to the age of eighteen.
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