Parlon me boy, is that the chap who did the moo-moos?

I went to a rural national school in the 1950s, in Coolderry, my home parish down in Co Offaly, where I live still. I went to the original old-fashioned two-teacher school. I think it was built in 1866. It had outdoor toilets and really poor facilities. That old school has been transformed now and is part of a new community centre. Immediately after I left, a new prefab three-teacher school was built and 10 or 15 years ago that was demolished and replaced by a five-teacher school with fabulous facilities.

There were maybe 60 or 70 pupils for the two teachers in the national school - a new master came along when I was there. A man called George Cunningham, now a very well-known historian. He was straight out of college then and was a breath of fresh air in a rural parish. He was from Roscrea and had a fabulous interest in local history, the old forts and the old history of Coolderry. He was also a great natural historian in terms of his knowledge of the Burren in Co Clare.

He was quite young, in his early 20s. I remember him with an old second-hand Volkswagen Beetle, just learning to drive it, and I, a young fella from a farm able to drive a tractor, remember thinking to myself that I'd make a better fist of driving the car than he would. But he left a very positive impression on me. He gave me a great sense of place and the importance of knowing where you come from.

My dad used to drive me about half-way to school, he left me off at a place called Mullens's Cross and I made my own way from there and generally made my own way home. Living five miles away from school getting there and getting home was a big issue. Where I live now is within half a mile of the school and our kids were nearly always driven down and back. I suppose times have changed in terms of sensitivities about kids being out on their own, at that time it was the norm. There was little or no transport on the road so the opportunities I had to get a lift were very minimal. Actually one of my main lift opportunities is now a Cabinet minister, but was then a local artificial insemination (AI) man and will remain nameless for he might not appreciate being remembered as the local AI man.

In the evenings when we got home there were always jobs to do on the farm. As I got older, I was able to help out more. I remember as soon as I was able to drive a tractor, my dad had me doing a lot of tractor jobs. It was a fairly typical mid-Sixties farm, my mum and dad did all the work between them and as kids we just threw our lot in with them, that was expected and every country kid at that time was the same.

When I was finished in national school, I went to the CBS in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. It was a new school and it brought choice because the only other opportunity for secondary education in Roscrea was the vocational school. I went by bicycle to Roscrea for the first year, six miles hail rain or snow it was just accepted you went to school there was no such thing as doing a rain check in the morning, you just got up and went.

In my second year in Roscrea free transport was introduced. The arrival of the free school bus was a source of massive excitement, having biked it to school for the previous 12 months.

I remember the first morning the bus came a couple of guys who had been collected earlier on the route brought their accordions and there was a bit of a party atmosphere and a sing-song for the first couple of mornings. Of course the novelty died off fairly quickly after that.

One of my fondest memories of Roscrea involved a very forward-thinking brother, Brother Campion, who taught French, and brought over this beautiful young French girl. She was a very sophisticated, beautiful French girl. I don't know why she ever wanted to end up in Roscrea for a year, but she gave us a great buzz every day anyhow.