Education – Sorry not much to report here!!

1951-1959 – St Joseph’s Infants and Juniors School

1959   Took 11+ exam and apparently “Failed”

Failure meant I wasn’t good enough for Grammar School and University, Good! I actually didn’t want that path, in my mind back then I didn’t want further education, I wanted “to work”. Don’t get me wrong, I had and still have the greatest respect for people who continue with further education, who go on to be our doctors, nurses, teachers, scientist, lawyers etc but for me going into industry was my equivalent of further education/university. I knew I/we needed people with this knowledge and skill but! I had the self-respect of knowing they needed me just as much as I needed them albeit for different reasons.

1959-1963 – Haugh Road Secondary Modern School (boys and girls were separate then)

59-63  4 years Secondary Modern was for me, although this was quite scary, the school had a ‘reputation’ lets say and Corporal Punishment was permitted in schools back then, no kidding, they hit us with canes, slippers, whatever the teacher preferred! Over the years this was applied less and less until it was banned from state schools completely in 1986.

The categories A’s the top class, B’s, C’s and D’s being the bottom. For the first 2 years I was in C’s and the final 2 years in B’s. So I did try to improve!

I knew at this very early age I didn’t want Grammar School and University! I wanted to “work” and going to Secondary Modern School was the fastest way to get there. The subjects I liked most, Metal Work, Wood Work, Technical Drawing and some aspects of Maths.

Back then at 15, we all left school with numerous possibilities for careers, Steelworks, Coal Mines, Foundries and a host of other possibilities. Of course the University Graduates went on to be Teachers, Nurses, Doctors, Scientists etc.

I chose the Printing Industry – back then, collectively, the industry employed the highest number of people in the country. Pay was minuscule but the trade was respectable. Didn’t follow dad’s footsteps down the pits, as was his wish. (Thanks’ dad). In the early days some of the lads I went to school with became labourers on building sites earning 10 times more than me! Thankfully although tempted, I stayed with print “to learn a trade”.

Printing being a manufacturing industry was for me, making things and using machinery (the technology of the day) involved many operations which could only be completed by hand. From this early age, I was never satisfied, with the way products were being produced, I wanted to find a “better more efficient way” – a trait which has been with me and shaped my character and career for all my “Life’s Work”.