Age gap? What age gap?

Transition Times: The students and elderly people who take part in Living Scenes don't always expect to have much in common. That makes them all the more surprised to discover how well they get on, writes Gráinne Faller

White hair, grey hair, spectacles: the people sitting in the circle are somewhat older than your usual transition-year participants. All is nice and sedate until a compliment about the group's participation with the school over the years provokes a stream of protest. "Ah, we're only here because we keep failing," says Eithne Conway-McGee. "We're chronic."

Slowly, the door opens and a group of students poke their heads around. Seeing that the session has finished, they burst in. One of them makes a beeline for Conway-McGee, whom she engulfs in a bear hug. More girls follow, in a flurry of delighted greetings and embraces. Snatches of conversations - "I missed you"; "How's the rogue?"; and "Some of them have grown so much over the summer" - float about the room amid the exclamations of excitement and recognition. Once the hubbub has calmed, young and old settle down for a chat.

"I suppose it is surprising that it works so well," says Clare Concar, one of the students who has just come in. She is talking about Living Scenes, a transition-year project that takes place at Presentation Secondary School in Galway each year. The programme has expanded to schools as far apart as Ennis, in Co Clare, and Wexford in the six years it has been running. We are witnessing this school's reunion of last year's participants.

"You'd think that teenagers and older people wouldn't have much in common, but we found ourselves agreeing a lot when we'd be discussing different things," says Clare.

The idea is simple enough. Retired people come into a school to learn skills alongside transition-year students. Age isn't a factor, and neither group is there to teach in any formal sense of the word. Individuals simply mingle, chat and make friends. The learning takes place almost by default. "We don't do the advice bit," says Dympna Murray, who joined Living Scenes through Salthill Active Retirement Association. "The only time I did was when one of the girls last year decided she wanted to be an actress. I told her to go to college and get herself a job first. Even as I said it I was thinking that I sounded like my grandmother."

Mary Surlis, who co-ordinates the programme, says: "I just saw a gap there while I was teaching myself. Grandparents weren't as likely to be in teenagers' lives, and that was a shame. Any adults that young people come into contact with tend to be authority figures, be they teachers, parents or whoever."

She adds: "There is a special bond between younger and older people. One offers experience and wisdom while the other brings enthusiasm and expectation. It makes for a really dynamic relationship."

One beneficial aspect of the project, which is funded by the community- education office at NUI Galway, is that the adults are not in charge. One of the grown-up participants, Colm O'Byrne, says: "I find that I am friends with these young people in a very different way than with my own children or even my grandchildren. Your grandchildren always look up to you, no matter what. With these young people, you meet them on an equal level, and that's how you relate to them."

Christina Quinn, one of the students, says: "It has given me a lot of confidence in that way. I wouldn't be afraid to talk to adults on a level now."

The old and young share more common ground than one might expect. Both have to deal with society's perception of them. Teens are viewed as trouble; the elderly are barely noticed at all.

Brendan Geoghegan says: "When you retire, people's view of you changes. It's like people are saying: 'There's the old fogey there, doting away.' I didn't want to dote away. I've resolved never to stop learning."

Christina Quinn admits: "You half- expect that old people will come in with their walking sticks and be a bit delicate or something, but they were just so energetic."

Another student, Sabrina Mulhall, says: "Some of us would have been a bit shy about getting up and doing things in front of the group, but the older people had no inhibitions like that. When you saw Eithne or someone getting up and performing something for the group, it was easier to get up yourself and do the same."

The programme is structured around timetabled informal classes that the students and the adults take together. At Presentation, for example, the group did arts, crafts, creative writing and drama. The scheme culminated in two nights of performance at An Taibhdhearc theatre, in Galway.

"That was wonderful," says Dympna Murray. "There was no age barrier whatsoever backstage. We were all in the bowels of the Taibhdhearc, having a fit of the heebie-jeebies." Sabrina Mulhall agrees. "Everyone's the same by that stage, especially during the show," she says.

Murray adds: "I remember I got the part of the Widow Quinn when we did The Playboy of the Western World a while back. My family all came. I think they thought I was cracked, and I'd say the attitude was: 'Well, we'd better go and humour her.' I wasn't too bad, and they were absolutely amazed. They got me a huge bouquet of flowers."

Colm O'Byrne might have been too talented an actor for his own good last year. He says: "I was playing a drunk, and my children were mortified. They were saying: 'Daddy's embarrassing us!' It's all good fun."

Seamus McGuinness, Presentation's transition-year co-ordinator, says: "The programme has been an absolute hoot. And it has really been so beneficial to everyone." He works with Eleanor Fogarty, who co-ordinates Living Scenes at the school. She says: "It's one of the most enriching programmes that has ever come to the school."

Clare Concar says: "I honestly don't have a bad word to say about the whole thing. We do a lot of transition-year projects, but this was definitely the one that made the biggest impression."

"The camaraderie is great," says Dympna Murray. "The people in the group, both young and old, I'd list as being people I'd like to be around at any time."

By now, last year's students have gone back to class and this year's group have sidled in. The contrast is interesting. Last year's lot were just like that in the beginning, according to Mary Surlis. As everyone settles into groups, says Brendan Geoghegan, "it's great to listen to young people, and to have them listening to you. It comes at a time when society begins to ignore you".

That's not his only reason for carrying on with it, though. The craic also has something to do with it. "It's a chance to act the maggot and get away with it."

For more information about Living Scenes, contact the community-education office at NUI Galway. Call 091-495241 or e-mail community.ed@nuigalway.ie

CALLING ALL WRITERS

To mark Positive Ageing Week, Age Action Ireland has launched an essay and short-story competition. Open to all transition-year students, it involves writing no more than 1,000 words about your perceptions of ageing. You have a while to get your entries in, as the closing date is December 16th. More details from info@ageaction.ie