'My family circumstances, as I said earlier, were better than most of my contemporaries so I was not obliged to join the workforce '
File: http://www.lifehistoriesarchive.com/Files/HBS20.pdf
Dublin Core
Title
'My family circumstances, as I said earlier, were better than most of my contemporaries so I was not obliged to join the workforce '
Description
Harry Browne describes leaving primary school and starting secondary education.
Creator
Harry Browne
Publisher
Trinity College Dublin
Date
1955
Rights
This item is protected by original copyright
Access Rights
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Relation
Harry Browne
Is Part Of
Adolescence and Early Adulthood
Type
Life Story
Spatial Coverage
North Strand, Dublin
Temporal Coverage
1950's
Life Story Item Type Metadata
Text
Leaving primary school age was twelve and a half or thirteen years, some went on to secondary school, others went straight into the work force. Economic necessity in many families in the middle 1950s dictated that all who could, contributed to the family support and thus thirteen year olds quite literally had to go to work. Many of my classmates went to work in Unidare which was a major employer in the north side of the city. My family circumstances, as I said earlier, were better than most of my contemporaries so I was not obliged to join the workforce. Instead I went to North Strand Technical School, where in addition to Irish English and Maths we also studied woodwork, metalwork and physical training.I was moderately good at the book learning and quite comfortable with woodwork but metalwork and physical training were a real pain in the ass for me. In first year we had an unfortunate teacher who suffered from a serious lisp. His pronunciation of the number three was therefore twee. He was the subject of unending teasing by the boys and known as Twee Twee by all and sundry. In second year we had a teacher who wore a scholar's gown. We inner city kids had never seen a scholars gown outside the picture hall and thought this a very strange garb for a teacher to wear. I assume that he had a teaching degree and most of the other teachers were tradesmen of one sort or another. Presumably he felt it necessary to display his superiority over the others in this manner. However to us he was a figure of ridicule and we christened him 'Batman'.
Sponsor
Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)
Research Coordinator/P.I.
Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)
Senior Research Associate
Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)
Geolocation
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