MID-AUGUST was the real beginning of the year for Christina. It began with what she termed "the big week for students" who would get their Leaving Certificate results and, from there, it was into the throes of the CAO system student queries and grants.
Points Race, her personal column, which ran for six days a week during the college offers season, entered everyday language - the term "points race" becoming shorthand for the annual scramble for college places.
Points Race began in 1983, and for 13 years, each day would begin with the incessant ringing of the helpline phones. Christina personally answered hundreds, perhaps thousands, of queries from distraught students and their parents.
She would put down the phone and rail against a system that left a student turning down a place on a Post Leaving Certificate course because of the lack of a maintenance grant. The number of mothers who phoned the helpline often prompted her to wonder how these students would get though college without the Mammy holding their hands.
Snobbery about colleges and courses was guaranteed to raise her ire. The student who didn't want to accept a certificate or diploma place in a regional technical college as it "wasn't exactly Trinity", would get an earful of strong advice. At all times, her interest in students' dilemmas was intense and unswerving.
Later, in the afternoons, Christina would begin to pound out her column, but she would often leave off in mid-sentence to talk to someone who didn't get through to the helpline in the morning and who was in genuine distress.
The intricacies of the education system delighted her. The appearance of the cut-off points for each round of college offers was the signal to drop everything and see if the points needed for computer science had gone up or if physiotherapy had gone down.
Any new development had to be fully investigated. General statements rarely satisfied. She had to know exactly ho" it worked in practice. College admissions officers, Department of Education officials, the CAO office were kept busy answering queries. She was chasing information from such sources, with her usual excitement and intensity - putting down the phone with a laugh or a curse - right through last week.
ALMOST immediately after Points Race ended, the Higher Options conference would begin. This year, its tenth, is the first time that students and parents will not be greeted by Christina. Each year, High Options, which is jointly organised by the Institute of Guidance Counsellors and The Irish Times, has expanded and, this year, more than 240 colleges will be represented. The conference helps students to make what Christina considered to be the most important decision of their lives - to choose a course or a career.
The new year, in January, would be ushered in by another daily column - Countdown to College. Students filling out their CAO/CAS or UCAS forms would be regaled with advice and information on the various options. Colleges held their breath while Christina pronounced on the value of courses. One college principal described her recently as the "second minister for education".
The year was also punctuated with regular events like the Challenging Times television quiz, the Irish Times debates and the Music in the Classroom series. And, with E&L being produced weekly throughout the school terms, the "year" would end with Exam Times, a daily commentary on the Junior and Leaving Certificate exams.
Christina's encyclopaedic knowledge of the education system, her personal approach to problems, her enthusiasm, commitment and sheer hard work will be sadly missed by readers of The Irish Times and by those of us in the education department who have worked closely with her.
