The opening of the Regional Technical Colleges from 1969 initiated one of the most exciting developments in Irish education during the twentieth century.  In the 1960s, Ireland had a small elite system of higher education, catering almost exclusively for the professions and some employment outlets in the public sector.   After developing awards of different levels and types, the regional technical colleges increased access to third level education, especially in those parts of the country away from the main centres of population. They brought a strong applied orientation, increased participation, and an important regional dimension to higher education in Ireland.  They made a huge contribution to economic development by providing suitable graduates ‘over a broad spectrum of occupations, ranging from craft to professional level’ for an expanding labour force, as well as facilitating participation, fostering social cohesion and becoming drivers of regional development.  Alumni from the Regional Technical Colleges found ready employment in Ireland, except for the recessions in the late 1980s and in 2008.  They made a significant contribution to the attractiveness of Ireland for foreign direct investment and in the promotion of indigenous enterprises.  Their geographical distribution was a big factor in increasing access to and participation in higher education.  They also made a huge contribution to increasing participation from lower socio-economic groups and providing students from a variety of backgrounds with opportunities to develop their talents and realise their potential.  The colleges developed the ladder system of progression, which facilitated the integration of further and higher education, and they were responsive to the demand for life-long learning and up-skilling of the labour force.  The colleges were quick to provide new programmes to satisfy new needs by learners and employers, working closely with regional and community organisations).  They endeavoured to foster enterprise development, promote partnerships with industry, and participate in national and European funded research initiatives. They also tried to advance knowledge by teaching and research. They made a huge contribution to transforming the small elite system of higher education in the country during the 1960s (less than 15 per cent of the relevant cohort) to a mass system (15-50 per cent participation), and in recent times to a universal one (over 50 per cent participation). 

         Following amalgamations and mergers, these regional technical colleges have now been designated into five technological universities. These are: the Technological University of Dublin, established in January 2019; Munster Technological University, established in January 2021; Technological University of Shannon – Midland and Midwest, established October 2021; Atlantic Technological University established in April 2022, and South-East Technological University, established in May 2022.   It is hoped that this development will enhance Ireland’s reputation as an ideal place for foreign direct investment and provide a further stimulus for indigenous businesses.

The sudden death of Pádraig Maye on 31 January 2021, following a stroke, shocked everyone who had the privilege of knowing him. Always a gentleman, with an engaging  pleasant personality, and modest in regard to his numerous achievements, Pádraig was affable,  kind and caring in thought, word and deed, who greeted everyone with a warm smile. His presence radiated happiness. He was a wonderful selfless human being, a loyal son, a devoted husband, an exemplary father, a loving grandfather, and a friend to everyone who knew him, as well as a teacher, Gaelic footballer, handballer, and a renowned competitive track-and-field athlete. He will be greatly missed way beyond his own family, with all holding treasured memories of him. 

        Pádraig was born on 1 May 1940, the eldest son of Patrick (Pake) Maye and his wife Nancy (Nance, née Egan) from Castlerock, and grew up in Aclare, County Sligo. I find it hard to adequately express my huge admiration for Pádraig from his early years.   As first cousins on the Egan side, my mother and Padraig’s mother were great friends; my mother rarely passed through Aclare without calling in to see Nance. I recall Pádraig’s name with great affection for as long as I can remember. He became my early idol and always remained so.   I was present when Pádraig won his first ever medal at Killasser Sports in 1952, for the 100 yards under-fourteen sprint.  He brought me to my first inter-county football games in the late 1950s. 

           Pádraig attended Kilmacteige and Castlerock primary schools before going to St Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen in September 1954, a place then with very strict rules, which were a big shock to him. Our huge pride in him continued when he was a member of the St Nathy’s senior football team that qualified for and won the All-Ireland Hogan Cup final on 14 April 1957 in Croke Park, while in his intermediate year (now the junior certificate).  With his neighbour Éamon O’Hara as captain, they had a great campaign and defeated St Colman’s of Newry in the final by 1-7 to 0-4.   Seven members of the winning team came from Sligo and the rest from Mayo. The following year, St Nathy’s lost to St Jarlath’s of Tuam, who went on to win the Hogan Cup.   In 1959, St Nathy’s defeated St Colman’s College, Claremorris, St Jarlath’s, and St Enda’s, Galway, to win the Connacht title, with Pádraig playing at centre-field.  They defeated C.B.S. Newry in the semi-final, before losing the 1959 final to St Joseph’s, Fairview, Dublin, in a game they could have won. St Nathy’s were leading by a point and playing well with about ten minutes left in the game when they missed a penalty. A goal then could have decided the game in their favour.  However, St Joseph’s gained a new confidence and went on to win by 3-9 to 2-8 in what Peadar O’Brien described the following day in The Irish Press as ‘a thrilling victory’.  One of the highlights of the game was the contest between Pádraig and the precocious Des Foley, then not alone a Dublin senior footballer but also a Leinster Railway Cup player.   In St Nathy’s, Pádraig won three Connacht Colleges’ medals in athletics, and was chosen as the best all-round athlete in the college for both 1958 and 1959. I followed his days playing senior football for Sligo and Tourlestrane with great interest, before he went to Nigeria in 1963, going with him to games on a number of occasions. He was a member of the Tourlestrane senior team that qualified for the 1960 county final, where they all had an off day and lost to Ballysadare.

          After going to University College Dublin (UCD) in September 1959, I followed his illustrious athletics career there in the newspapers, especially The Evening Press.  I recall one photograph of him retaining the Leinster long jump title in 1960 at 7.2 metres, while competing with a broken arm in a cast, an injury sustained that morning playing football. He won the All-Ireland junior and senior long jump titles in 1960. However, his mother was not too impressed by those newspaper reports as he was named as Pádraig Maye, UCD.  I heard her say several times: “why do they not get it right and put down Aclare instead of UCD?”  She had a big collection of cuttings from papers about his sporting career, which she showed me several times.

           After graduating with a BA degree in 1962 and a Higher Diploma in Education in 1963, Pádraig went on a two year contract to teach for the SMA Fathers in Nigeria, which was extended to three, a year that led up to the start of a civil war in that country. We exchanged many letters during that time.  While his experience was interesting, he often recalled his fear of mosquitoes and contracted malaria twice. After a stint in London, he went to Chicago in 1966 for a short visit; Nance always said that he was offered a job in Banada, and she wanted him to take it.  I lost touch with him in Chicago because his mother kept talking about him coming back. Every conversation included a reference to Pádraig coming back.  We now know that he liked the place and met Dublin-born Terry O’Shea, who had emigrated with her family to Chicago as a child. They were married on December14, 1968, in St Clement’s Church, Chicago, and later two beautiful daughters, Coleen and Erin, were born.  While teaching in ‘the windy city’, Pádraig completed a master’s degree in guidance and counselling.  In Chicago, he won twelve football medals from 1966 to 1980. The short trip was extended, and extended.  However, Nance always believed and hoped that he would come back to Aclare because she knew that he would be happy there. She had great foresight! When they arrived in 1980, people were comparing Terry with Jacqueline Kennedy!  Pádraig started teaching in Banada Abbey secondary school in September 1980, and soon earned a reputation as a good and dedicated teacher of history, geography and English.  He was held in high esteem by his students, their parents, and colleagues. When Banada closed, he moved to their new school St Attracta’s in Ballyara.   He retired from teaching in November 2004.

          With regard to sport, it has to be appreciated that Pádraig did not compete in any Irish athletic competition from 1962 until 2001, when he resumed his career with Ballina Athletic Club. This intensified following his retirement up to the end of the life, leading to incredible achievements that will not be equalled.  After that, he won numerous All-Ireland medals in ten different athletic events, chiefly the long jump, the high jump, the triple jump, javelin, the shot put and 100m sprint.  In his distinguished athletic career, he won 171 Irish national medals (first, second or third), 31 British Open Masters’ medals, 48 Ulster Open medals and numerous other trophies. He was All-Ireland over 60s long jump champion in 2001, shot put champion in 2002,  second in the high jump 2003, second in the javelin 2003,  and  went on to excel in these competitions for over 60s, 65s, 70s  and over 70 until 2019. In that year, he won three All-Ireland gold medals in over 75 age group for the long jump, high jump and javelin, as well as silver medals for the shot put and weight throwing.  This all came to an end in March 2020, when COVID-19 arrived in the country.  In May, 1993, he received the Merit Award as the Best Connacht Athlete in the O’Duffy Cup over the previous fifty years (that was an annual athletics contest, now defunct, between competitors from Ulster and Connacht).   In both 2011 and 2012, he was named as ‘Mayo Athletic Association Masters’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year’, and later received several other special awards.  No short tribute can do justice to all his athletic achievements.        

            He had a lifelong interest in handball and enjoyed playing in all the local alleys like Banada, Ballymote, Castleconnor, Charlestown, Cloonfinish, Killasser, Collooney, Cully, Swinford, Sligo, and Kilmacteige. He won four All-Ireland handball titles, the Emerald  title in 1998,the Diamond Masters’ singles in 2000, as well as the doubles title that year with his neighbour Séamus O’Donnell, and in 2010 won the masters ‘A’ title with Paddy Walsh. He also won four All-Ireland runner-up awards in handball.

                Pádraig made a huge contribution to his local community in many ways, including video recordings with numerous people about their memories and life experiences, as well as co-editing (with Marie Fleming and Daniel Jones) two books on local history and heritage, Kilmactigue Parish: History and Memories, volumes 1 and 2. He loved his own place, and believed that local stories should be recorded for posterity, which he did, establishing a big invaluable collection.   I was fortunate to make a short visit to Pádraig and Terry during Christmas week in 2020, of course with elbow greetings, masks and social distancing because of COVID-19.  I received copies of the recently published Kilmactigue Parish: History and Memories, volume 2 that day. After reading it over the Christmas period, I rang Pádraig in mid January to compliment him on it. We discussed a number of its fine articles. He asked me was there anything I would like to see in volume 3.  I said perhaps a profile of Mick Christie and one on renowned singer Tommy Fleming.  After recalling that Mick Christie from Castlerock was a great footballer who played not alone for Sligo but for Connacht in 1948, 1950, and 1957 when the standard in the province was the highest in the country, he asked me to write the profile of him.  I declined because I did not know enough about him as he was well before my time, but that I heard many sing his praises and  he should be remembered.  This was to be our last conversation. Pádraig was the last person I expected to get a stroke, but that is life.  As Irish Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats wrote in ‘The Municipal Gallery Revisited’:

                                  ‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends,

                                   And say my glory was I had such friends’.

 Our sincere sympathy to his widow, Terry, daughters Coleen and Erin, his eight grandchildren, Kayla, Alana, Aiveen, Conor, Caoimhe, Cora, Rory, Gavin, and his great granddaughter Éire Jane, his son-in-law Seán, Erin’s partner, Patrick, as well as his other relatives, especially his brothers, James (Chicago), Milo (Aclare) and Willie (Raphoe). It has to be some consolation to his family at this difficult time to know how much he was admired and loved.  No words of mine can adequately express my admiration for him.  May he dwell in the Lord’s house forever and ever.

 Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.   Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.

(Bernard O’Hara, formerly from Killasser, is now living in Salthill.

In addition to his other publications, he is the author of a trilogy on his native parish,

Killasser: A History,

The Archaeological Heritage of Killasser, County Mayo,

Killasser: Heritage of a  Mayo Parish,

as well as editing : St John’s School, Carramore, Killasser, 1913-2013.)

            Anthony Raftery (Antaine Ó Raiftearaí), who was born in Killedan (Cill Liadáin) between Kiltamagh and Bohola, County Mayo, Ireland, about 1779, is described as ‘the last of the wandering Gaelic bards’. His father was a cottier and a weaver at Killedan House, home of the local landlord, Frank Taaffe, and his mother, née Brennan, came from the area.   After attending a hedge school for a few years, he contracted smallpox at the age of nine, which left him without sight.  His eight siblings are said to have died in childhood with it. Anthony began to play the fiddle but never became a good musician.  He was a regular visitor in Killedan House, and one day took one of Frank Taaffe’s horses for a trip to Kiltamagh.  The horse fell and broke its neck, which made the owner very angry.  It is said that Taaffe banished Raftery from Killedan. Whether the story is true or not, Anthony Raftery left County Mayo and spent the rest of his life wandering the roads of Galway, visiting house after house, bringing the news of the day, reciting his poems, playing his fiddle, drinking, and talking about his experiences.  He is said to have attended a hedge school in Ballylee, County Galway, and had books read to him.  He had two children with his partner, Siobhán.

            Raftery could not write, but his poems were preserved in the oral tradition of the people of the Athenry/Gort/Loughrea district of East and South Galway. His poems were recited at weddings, wakes, on special occasions, and around many firesides. These were polemical with a strong historical, political and religious content. A few people recorded his poetry in manuscripts, most of which were later collected by Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932), who gave them to the Irish scholar, Dr Dubhglás de hÍde (Dr Douglas Hyde).  Hyde published thirty-two of Raftery’s poems in Irish, with English translations and background information in ‘Songs Ascribed to Raftery’, the fifth chapter of The Songs of Connacht (1903).  Raftery’s poems and ballads include attacks on those who tried to suppress rural agitation (Na Buachaillí Bána /The Whiteboys); celebrations of contemporary events such as Daniel O’Connell’s election victory in Clare, 1828, which led to Catholic Emancipation a year later (Bua Uí Chonaill /O’Connell’s Victory); pieces in praise of pretty women with whom he was besotted, in spite of his visual impairment (Máire Ní Eidhin/Mary Hynes and Brídín Bhéasaí /Breedgeen Vesey; singing the praises of tradesmen (An Gréasaí /The Shoemaker), and lamenting some nineteen people tragically drowned in  Lough Corrib between Annaghdown and Galway in 1828 (Eanach Dhúin/Annaghdown). There is an astonishingly-detailed summary of Irish history containing more than 400 lines (Seanchas na Sceiche/Traditional lore with the Bush) and a confession of the poet’s many sins (Aithrí Raiftearaí /Raftery’s Repentance).  In Mayo his best -known poem is Contae Mhaigh Eo (County Mayo) or Cill Liadáin, in which he sings the praises of his native place:

                            ‘Killedan (is) the village in which everything grows;

There are blackberries and raspberries in it, and fruit of every kind’,..

Translation by Douglas Hyde

            There is some doubt about the provenance of his best-known poem Mise Raiftearaí /I am Raftery, which laments his life as a blind man, with his back to the wall, ‘playing music unto empty pockets’.  It was published by Seán Ó Ceallaigh, a native of Loughrea living in Oswego, New York State, in the journal An Gaodhal in 1882; it is thought to have derived from material in folk memory relating to Raftery.  It was later credited by Douglas Hyde to Raftery himself.  Anthony Raftery died on December 24, 1835, and was buried in Killeeneen cemetery between Kilcolgan and Craughwell in County Galway.  Lady Gregory was responsible for the erection of a headstone on his grave which was unveiled on August26, 1900. The big attendance included not alone Lady Gregory, but also other major figures from the Irish cultural renaissance like W. B. Yeats, Edward Martyn and Douglas Hyde. In 1985, a granite memorial was erected in his honour in Kiltamagh.

        In January 2022, the Irish Government announced an additional annual public holiday to thank citizens for all their sacrifices and work during Covid, and to remember those that lost their lives in the pandemic.  This year the additional day is on March 18 to make a long weekend as the previous day, St Patrick’s Day, is already a public holiday.  From 2023, the new public holiday will fall on the first Monday of February and celebrate St Brigid, the patroness of Ireland, one of the three national saints with Saints Patrick and Columba.  This will bring the number of public holidays in Ireland to ten. As provided for in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the existing nine public holidays are January 1 (New Year’s Day), St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, the first Mondays in May, June and August, the last Monday in October, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day. In respect of each, an employee is entitled to a paid day off on the holiday, or another paid day off within a month, or an extra day’s annual leave, or an extra day’s pay, as the employer may decide.  If a public holiday falls on a Sunday the next day becomes the public holiday, and in respect of Christmas Day, the following Tuesday.  Part-time employees must have worked at least forty hours in the five weeks before the public holiday to qualify for payment.

       The first is celebrated in Ireland as St Brigid’s Day, a date originally associated with the pre-Christian festival known as Imbolc, which marked the start of Spring and growth.   From early Christian times in Ireland, the date became the feast day of St Brigid, the most renowned female saint in the country.  Many miracles were attributed to her.  From that time, it became traditional for each family to make and display a Saint Brigid’s Cross, a small cross made with rushes.  Straw and small sally rods were also used to make Saint Brigid’s crosses and there were a number of different designs.   The origin of the tradition is said to have begun when a local chieftain in Kildare was ill and Brigid went to see him.  She soon realised that he was dying and decided to speak to him about Christianity. While doing so, she picked up rushes from the floor of the house and knitted them into a cross.  He asked her what she was doing. She placed the cross in his hands and explained to him about Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection. When told of its symbolism, the dying person asked to be baptised. Shortly after his baptism, he died. Afterwards Saint Brigid came to be associated with hope, renewal and growth.

       In Ireland it was traditional to place a Saint Brigid’s Cross over a doorway in the belief that it protected a house from fire and saved its inhabitants from any harm.  Saint Brigid’s Cross became one of the symbols of Ireland with the harp and shamrock.  Today the custom is kept alive in Ireland, especially with primary schools playing big roles in observance of this custom. It is still customary to see a Saint Brigid’s Cross in many homes.

        It is believed that Brigid (c. 451-524) was born in Faughart, about 3km north of Dundalk, in County Louth, where there is now a Saint Brigid stone and pillar as well as holy well.  It is still a place of pilgrimage. After becoming a nun, Brigid became a great Christian leader and founded a number of monasteries, especially one in Kildare where she spent a big part of her life. Brigid is said to have established the first community of women dedicated to religious life in Ireland at Kildare. She is said to have founded two communities there, one for women and the other for men. Kildare developed into an important monastic foundation in early Christian times. It is believed that Saint Brigid died there. Many place names in Ireland are called Kilbride, the church of Brigid, in her memory. Henceforth, St Brigid will be remembered in a special way in Ireland on the first Monday of February each year.

This year 2022 will be a sensitive and difficult one in the Irish decade of centenaries, 2013-2023, because it recalls the divisive acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the start of the Civil War, the killing of Michael Collins and the foundation of the Irish Free State.  After weeks of difficult negotiations in London, during which the UK refused to recognise ‘an Irish Republic’, articles of agreement, generally known in Irish history as the Anglo Irish Treaty, were signed on December 6, 1921, providing for an Irish Free State in the twenty six counties as a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth, with the monarch as Head of State, and Irish Members of Parliament obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown.  The six counties of Northern Ireland, which had its own parliament from June 22, 1921, was given the right to opt out. After a bitter Dáil debate, where the oath emerged as the main issue, the treaty was ratified by sixty-four votes to fifty-seven on January 7, 1922. The Irish Free State Provisional Government was established on January 14, 1922, with Michael Collins as chairman. Until September, there was a system of dual government in Ireland, with the Dail and provisional government functioning concurrently.  Dublin Castle, the centre of British rule in Ireland, was surrendered to the Irish and the British withdrew their soldiers and administration. On 16 June, a general election was held, which resulted in the pro-treaty group winning 58 seats, anti-treaty followers 36, Labour 17, and various independents 17. Despite an election in June 1922, which supported the treaty, civil war broke out soon afterwards, which lasted from June 28, 1922, until May 24, 1923. Animosity between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty within the republican movement started to ferment even before the agreement. The civil war, which ended with the surrender of the anti-treaty republicans, claimed about 4,000 casualties and caused considerable damage to property. Even supporters of the treaty believed that partition would be temporary as article 12 of the treaty provided for a Boundary Commission, which was expected to give more territory to the Free State and make Northern Ireland unviable. The commission turned into a disaster for the Free State.  The rights and wrongs of the Civil War dominated Irish political life for a generation and relegated economic, social and cultural development to second place whilst the cream of Irish youth emigrated.

     The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireannn) came into existence on December 6, 1922, one year after the treaty, following the adoption of a Constitution by the Dáil in October 1922. The constitution implemented the provisions of the treaty, including the oath of allegiance and the governor-general representing the monarch. While executive authority was vested in the monarch, his/her power was nominal, with actual power residing with the executive council led by a president nominated by the Dail. The Northern Ireland parliament opted out of the Irish Free State, as was expected. There were then two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.  Northern nationalists found themselves abandoned and alienated, living as second class citizens  under continuous sectarian one party rule, which sowed the seeds of later conflict. There was also a minority of unionist supporters in the Irish Free State.  De Valera grew frustrated with Sinn Fein, and founded a new party, Fianna Fail, in 1927, which came to power in 1932. Various changes to the treaty took place over the years, especially from 1932 to 1936 when symbolic structures of Crown supremacy, that were divisive in 1922, were  gradually dismantled. A new Constitution was adopted by plebiscite on Ju1y, 1937. It came into effect on 29 December 1937, under which the State became an independent republic in all but name, known as Éire in Irish and as Ireland in English (articles4 and 5). While an Irish Republic was proclaimed in 1916, and re-affirmed by the First Dáil on January 21, 1919, it was 1949 before it became a reality at midnight on April 18 that year under the Republic of Ireland Act, when Ireland left the British Commonwealth.