The Class of 1977
1977. Elvis Presley died and King Lear was on the LEaving Cert. Mark Twain on the Inter and Thin Lizzy played in Dalymount Park. Dublin won the All-Ireland and the Clash played in TCD. Punk music was just beginnning to take off with a bang. We had a general election as well and the Soldiers of Destiny got back with Jack.
In 1977 we had a heatwave and Annie Hall was playing in the cinemas. Star Wars hit us later in the year. The Godfather was playing in the Ambassador and petticoats wer fashionable (on women). The Dandelion Market was very vogue. Bob Geldod and the Rats hadn't wuite made it big although they supported Lizzy at Dalymmount, but by the end of the year, 'Rat Trap' had launched them to stardom. U2 were still schoolboys at Mount Temple and the Lookalikes were the rage on the Dublin scene.
In 1977 people could still say "when I leave sschool I want to be a brain surgeon" because the opportunities were there. If you studied and did well at school you were pretty sure you'd get a job. People were optimistic although wages were terrible, A random selection of the Class Reunion of 1977 by Denis Geoghan and Helen Shaw; people from over the place who have just one thing in common - they all finished school in the halcyon days of 1977.
Name: Barbara Nolan Age: 24
Born: Dublin
Address: Blackrock, Co Dublin School: Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin
Barbara liked art at school and was always the one who got A in art.
"I was very cocky and I just assumed that I would get accepted into the National College of Art and Design so when they refused me it just blew my confidence in me as an artist." After she left Sian Hill, her father, who was managing director of Irish Shell, innsisted she spent a year at Cathal Brugha Street before doing anything else. "He always said that when he married my mother she couldn't boil an egg so he was determined that none of his daughters would go out into the world like that." Yes, she says, it was someething like a finishing school, she learnt to cook, sew and even had classes in laundry.
After Cathal Brugha Barbara headed for UCD and took up Social Science but found after a year and a half that it was all wrong for her. She left UCD and started taking casual jobs in resstaurants until heading off to Canada in May 1980 to be an au pair. "I started taking night classes there in illustrating and cartooning and renewed my whole interest in art again." When she came back to Dublin a year later she enrolled in the one-year Advertising course at Rathmines College. Next summer, 1982, she went off to San Francisco and ended up staying the year, workking in casual jobs from messenger to ad design on a newspaper - spending five months cleaning houses.
Back in Ireland in 1983 she took an AnCO course in silk screen printing and graphics and really liked it. All the eleinents of her art training were coming together and she ended up taking her AnCO placement on In Dublin magazine where she trained as a graphic artist. She stayed on with the magazine after the placement and has been with them for a year and a half, working as a freelance artist and she's involved with several other proojects. "I suppose it's just taken me a long time to get to the career I origiinally wanted but I've enjoyed all the distractions along the way," she conncluded.
Name: Tim Deasy Age: 26
Born: Cork
Address: Ballinlough, Cork
School: North Monastery, Fairhills, Cork
Tim hadn't the slightest idea he would ever end up working in a shop when he left the North Monastery after his Leaving Cert in 1977. "I had a notion that I wanted to be a garda but I changed my mind because at that stage I was very involved in hurling and I thought the garda might mean I'd have to move around and that would have messed up my hurling."
Tim played with the Cork team in 1981-82 and is regarded as a bit of a hot shot but because of an injury in 1982 he hasn't been playing as much as he'd like. "I'm still playing at club level but I'm hoping to play much more."
After a one year business course Tim took a Christmas job with Cash's (part of the Switzer Group). They asked him to stay and he's still there now exactly six years later. "I went from soft furnishing to men's wear and then they opened this new sports shop and made me departmental sales manaager." It's the kind of job that grows on you he says. "In the beginning I didn't like it much but it was a job and I stayed and after a while I realised I was enjoying it. I'm very pleased with the way I've been able to advance within the store and I think that gives you an incentive."
Besides promotion, Cash's has also given Tim a wife, as he met his Dublin wife working in the store. They married last July and so far it's "brilliant" he says. Yes, he'll stay in Cash's, a job is a job these days, and he knows fellows from his class who still haven't got a permanent job yet and are going from one part-time job to another, if they're lucky.
Name: Catherine Rhatigan Age: 25
Born: Sligo
Address: Cliffoney ; Co Sligo School: Ard Luaigh, Bundoran, Co Donegal
Catherine says she was sent to Ard Luaigh mainly for the "snob element" as it's regarded as a "good" school in the class sense. Run by the St Louis nuns this is a small and mixed school known for good academic reesults. Catherine's father is a dentist and he wanted her to be one too so when she passed her Leaving Cert in '77 with only four honours she had to repeat for points. "I didn't want to be a dentist at all; I was more into English and Arts rather than anything scientific."
But parental pressure won out and in the autumn of 1978 Catherine started in Science at UCG. After one year Catherine decided enough was enough and refused to go back until she transferred to Arts. So transfer she did and ended up graduating in English and French and taking the Higher Dipploma in Teaching in 1982.
Catherine has been swimming since she was a child and qualified as a lifeeguard when she was only sixteen, so after the H.Dip she started teaching swimming to kids throughout the country. She was one of the people who took the AnCO three month Work-Out course in 1983 and ended up working for AnCO taking pioneer courses. She trained lifeguards in Connacht for AnCO and is now plannning to teach some more courses and eventually get back into school teachhing which is what she originally trained to do.
"I'm happy when I'm organising and controlling work myself rather than working under someone else. I suppose I like to use my own initiative rather than be told exactly what to do. That's why I've enjoyed doing the AnCO courses so much but I would really like to do some serious training as well as getting to see much more of the world. Perhaps I can combine both ambitions and teach myself around the world."
Name: John O'Connor Age: 25
Born: Dublin
Address: Bluebell, Dublin 12
School: Colaiste Chronin, Clondalkin, Dublin
Going to college was not someething that was discussed at John's school in Clondalkin, but while the careers teacher was talking about appprenticeships John was hankering to be a teacher. When he left school after the Leaving Cert in 1977 he hadn't sat any honour subjects so took a job in Musgraves Cash & Carry after being unemployed for three months. "The money wasn't much at all but I started night classes in Leeson Street to try for honours to get me into university. I suppose it was then that I began seriously planning to get to college and be a teacher. "
After a year John took a job as storeman with an engineering firm where the wages were a lot better and signed on for another year of night classes. With a large family of brothers and sisters younger than him there wasn't any money for fees so he saved his wages and finally got the three honours he wanted for college. He started Arts at UCD in 1979 but missed the grants because he didn't have the compulsory four honours required to merit a grant.
He worked right through college doing security work to pay for fees and books and graduated in 1982 with a BA in English and History. After another year doing his Diploma in teaching he was finally qualified to be the teacher he had always wanted to be. The only problem was finding a job.
For the past two years since qualiifying John has been working as a partttime teacher in Greenhills VEC, Walkinstown. He actually went back to his old school, Colaiste Chronin, to do his teaching hours during his Dipploma and admits that yes, he was probably one of the very few past pupils to ever come back as a teacher. Most of his classmates did trades or got into an office job if they were lucky. And future ambitions? "Well it would be nice to get a teaching jo b, wouldn't it! "
Name: Mary McCormack Age: 23
Born: London
Address: Sycamore Road, Finglas East, Dublin 11
School: St Bridget's Primary School and St Mary's Secondary School, Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin, Dublin
Mary left school after her lnterrmediate exams in 1977 with the one am bition of being a hairdresser. "I did sort of think about being an air hostess because I'd really like the travel and all that but I was always mad about hairdressing." She began training at the Witches Hut in Nassau Street in the beginning of 1978, and qualified in 1982, after stints in Peter Mark's and Lionel's.
When Mary left school there wasn't much difficulty in getting jobs. She had to wait a few months before an apprenticeship came up but everybody she knows who left then got jobs. "I hated school and wanted to get out but now when I look back I know I'd stay on and do my Leaving Cert if I was doing it all again. At fifteen you're far too young to know what you're about and it's only later on you realise how important education is."
When Mary started her apprenticeship she was coming out with £7 in her hand every week. Now a qualified and experienced stylist she can commmand the price of between £ 13 0 and £150 per week. At the moment she is out of work for practically the first time in her career. Up to October she was working with Gatsby's in Ash-. bourne, where she had been for two years, but she decided to pack it in and do some travelling. "I've always loved travelling to different places, probably something to do with this air hostess thing but my fiance Ronan has two sisters in Italy so I went over to them with the vague idea of working there. I was there for a couple of months but it's not too easy for a foreigner to break into a business like hairdressing so I decided to come back and look for another salon around Dublin. "
Mary would definitely like to set up her own place this year. She has saved some capital with Ronan and is hoping to get her own salon, preferrably on the north side of town. "I love fashion, clothes and style and I just think there would be much more potential for me if I was running my own place. What often happens in salons is that you work really hard but never get the rewards yourself. You're just making someone else rich."
Name: John Hogan Age: 24
Born: Ballinamore, Co Leitrim Address: Fairview, Dublin
School: Summerhill College, Sligo
When John left school he didn't know exactly what he wanted to be. However, he recalls that he was quite clear in his mind that he wanted to go to college, take some sort of degree and naturally enough this would guarantee a reasonable job in the future.
"My first year out of school I worked on a beer lorry as a helper, salesman. I was only sixteen at the time and didn't want to go directly from school into college."
Living in Sligo town with his widowed mother John applied to the County Council the following year for a grant to study in Trinity College.
The grant was approved and included the cost of fees and a maintenance allowance.
"I opted for Economics and Social Science, mainly because it covered a broad range of subjects. I've never been a worrier so I took the scenic route through college, getting involved in student politics. As a result I failed my second year exams and had to repeat.
"Coming to Trinity from a small west of Ireland town was a bit of a shock although the greater cultural mix helped to make me more tolerant of people with different views to my own.
"I had a great time in college and nearly always had a part-time job which subsidised my social life. "
In 1983 John left Trinity with an honours degree in business administraation. He quickly found a temporary job with an Irish fast food franchise company which lasted until Christmas 1983. What followed, John describes as, "the worst period in my life. I was on the dole for two and a half months. I was on £30 a week which was even less than I had lived on as a student."
Since March 1984 John has worked as a freelance researcher for a manageement consultancy firm. His experience has left him feeling cynical but not bitter. "I don't believe that the people running the country are capable of the job, especially where social issues are at stake. Still, being an optimist, I'm hopeful." John has only one regret. "I wish I had been born ten years earlier to avail of the opportunities that existed in the seventies."
Name: Derek Robinson Age: 23
Born: Dun Laoghaire
Address: Buckingham Street, Dublin School: CBS Eblana A venue, Dublin
I did my Leaving Cert at sixteen and had no cop-on whatsoever. I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I loved football. I went to the career guidance guy and told him I wanted to be a professional footballer. He laughed at me and said 'What do you really want to be?' so .I told him again but he couldn't tell me anything about it.
"I found it hard to get work but eventually I got a job in the factory where my father had worked. I hated working there and never gave up thinkking about football."
While playing football for Home Farm Derek was spotted by talent scouts from Luton FC and was brought to England to play for their youth team. But at eighteen he was already too old.
"Had I been given a trial when I was sixteen I would now be a professsional footballer. I returned to Dublin feeling a bit bitter that, through no fault of my own, I had missed my opportunity to fulfill my dreams."
Back in Dublin Derek's uncle got him a job as a labourer on a building site. "I loved it. And not long after starting I became an apprentice bricky at nineteen years of age."
Working on the building site, Derek became conscious of the fact that he was only earning £52 a week building luxury flats that were selling at £60,000 each. Derek was also becoming aware of other things which he considered unjust.
"I became a member of the Dun Laoghaire Release Nicky Kelly Commmittee but after a couple of visits from the Special Branch I moved to Ballyymun where I lived with a priest and began working with young people in the area."
In 1984 Derek jacked up his job on the building site and came to live in the inner city where he is teaching young kids to read and write. "When I look around here I don't see much hope but that hasn't altered my commmitment to working for change. I think it was Ghandi who said, even if you are a minority of one the truth is still the truth."
Name: Caitriona QUigley Age: 24
Born: Dundalk
Address: Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 School: St Vincent's Convent
As a teenager Caitriona Quigley had an ambition, which she now admits was more than a bit naive, to become a scientist and do cancer reesearch. Leaving behind the restraints of Dundalk and St Vincent's Convent she came to Dublin in 1977 to study science in Maynoo th College.
"The freedom of living away from home in Dublin just went to my head. I had a fantastic social life and soon forgot what I started out to do. After failing my exams miserably I realised that I wasn't cut out to be a scientist."
Reluctant to return to Dundalk Caitriona got a job in Dublin Corpora~ tion's housing allocation department.
"For the first time I saw how the other half lived. I had never known poor people coming, as I did, from a comfortable background. I wan-ted to do something to help, so I decided to become a social worker and the followwing year began a course in Social Studies in Trinity College."
The year spent with Dublin Corpooration had a maturing effect on Caitriona which prompted her to pay her own way through college.
Half way through her degree course Caitriona began living with her boyyfriend. "I didn't believe in marriage. I just thought it was a load of rubbish. However, I couldn't cope with the family pressure to 'do the right thing'. So, just before I was conferred in 1983 I got married."
Since leaving college Caitriona has been employed as a social worker in St Vincent's Hospital. To go from college to the dole would have been too much to bear says Caitriona. "I would hate to be one of the thousands on the dole. I think my classmates and I were lucky. We got the last of the good years. "
Name: John Colton Age: 23
Born: The Bogside, Derry City Address: Charles Street, Dublin
School: St Joseph's Secondary School
I left school at six teen mainly beecause of the political crisis in Northern Ireland. Everything I thought and did was dictated by the pressure that were born out of the conflict which was at its height in the sevennties. "
At sixteen John went to England where he drifted from city to ci .-. Finding work was never a problem.
After a time he settled in Pembroke, Wales, for six months. Feeling that he could now cope with life in Derry, John returned to his home town for Christmas 1978.
"The violence of the seventies seemed to have peaked then. Many of my friends were in prison and some were on the blanket. Others were dead; killed as serving members of the IRA or simply casual victims of the violence.
"I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I wanted people to have equal rights and I also wanted to help people to escape all the pressures, just as I had."
Although officially unemployed, John began to do part-time youth work. He tried to use drama as a means of communication between young people of all backgrounds.
"As the years went by I became intensely involved in the work but decided that I needed to broaden my skills. I attended the Ulster Polytechnic for a year and was awarded a teacher's qualification in community drama." For a while John worked in Belfast's deaf and blind school using drama to cater for the individual needs of the kids. He later returned to Derry to teach in the North West College of Technology, as well as community centres.
"In 1984 I came to Dublin to take part in an arts course where I thought I could learn more but that didn't really work out."
John is now in the process of settting up an arts project which will be funded by the Youth Employment Agency.
"I want to use the project to teach young people about the dangers that they face every day. After all," John argues, "if we don't fact problems here and now we'll be in lots of trouble and I don't think there'll be any going back."
Name: Geraldine O'Driscoll Age: 22
Born: Sheriff Street, Dublin
Address: Sheriff Street, Dublin
School: St Theresa's College, George's Hill
I left school in 1977 because I wanted to do office work. I had taken my Inter the year before and it was enough to qualify me for a commmercial course in office procedure. I didn't bothe!' to go on at school beecause I knew there were people with degrees who were finding it difficult to get work."
Geraldine spent a year doing a secretarial course which operated a day release scheme to gain practical work experience.
"When the course finished I was interested in doing hotel reception work so I immediately started another six month course in catering which was funded by AnCO and organised by the North Centre City Community Action Project. The day after that course finished I started on another AnCO course in book-keeping and typing. At the end of that I felt that I had done enough courses."
Within a few days Geraldine had found herself a job with the innerrcity co-op doing general office duties. "I worked there from 1979 until November 1984. By then Ihad become the secretary but the company was liquidated. I received the statutory redundancy payment; about £150."
Rather than sign on the dole Geralldine embarked on yet another AnCO course in book-keeping. That ended a week before Christmas. For the first time since leaving school Geraldine had to sign on the dole. "It was awful. I felt like I was begging. I only had to sign on for five weeks because I have a job now as secretary in the Community Workshops. "
Geraldine is engaged and plans to marry in three or four years' time but is she hopeful for the future? "Isn't everybody? There doesn't seem to be any alternative." •