AlmaMater

I had a whole series of educational adventures. I started off in a tiny private school - Miss Newman's in Sandymount, Dublin. That was an absolutely marvellous experience, a wonderful place.

When I was eight my father died and I was sent to St Andrews' as a boarder. I know it's a very good school now, but it was dreadful when I was there. I loathed it. There was lots of physical punishment, bullying and brutality both among the staff and students. I ran away several times and eventually persuaded my mother to send me to High School as a day pupil.

That was a completely difference experience. There was no bullying or corporal punishment. Instead of inflicting knowledge upon you, the teachers wanted to share their love of their subjects with you. History became a story which you were interested in following to the end.

We found an almost physical pleasure in handling the words of the English language. We explored the changing nature of reality by examining the ways words changed. We discovered, for example, that the word nice originally meant precise or exact.

The man who taught us English, Jack Cornish, never raised his voice. If anyone was playing up, he'd merely ask: "Are you feeling a little unwell today?" We'd all laugh but the point was made.

I liked most subjects in school - except maths. I could never understand the way maths problems were formulated. They were ambiguous - you could approach them from different ways and I could never decide which way.

At High School we were streamed. I was usually in the first five or six in the A stream. I was ambitious and anxious to get good reports.

Until the year I entered Trinity, you couldn't take English as a stand-alone subject - you had to combine it with a modern language. I studied both modern and medieval English. I loved it. I knew nothing about the Anglo-Saxon language. There was a wonderful sense of mystery about Beowulf, The Wanderer and The Seafarer. Reading them you felt in close contact with people who had lived centuries earlier.

One of our lecturers, RBD French, had a set of lovely rooms in the Rubrics. They were lined with books and filled with chintz covered sofas and open fires. RBD used to serve us seniors sherry. You felt you were being treated as an adult. You were invited to give your opinion and you were listened to with respect.

The college then was much smaller than it is today - there were fewer than 3,000 students. The tutorial system was at its height. Tutorials never consisted of more than six people. Students were assigned essays which they would then present to the group for discussion. Tutorials were one of the distinguishing features of college. They sharpened your reasoning faculties and helped form your views and tastes.