I was trying to think of a song on the theme of work. I’m sure they are lots, but The Beatles came to mind:
It’s been a hard day’s night,
And I’ve been working like a dog,
It’s been a hard day’s night,
I should be sleeping like a log.
I don’t know why they say working like a dog. Dogs seem to have a leisurely life, but maybe it’s hard work for them to be nice to us 😀.
Anyway, what jobs have I had?
- When I was 11, I had a paper round for a while, to raise money for an electric train set. It just meant putting newspapers through letterboxes. I did this sort of thing in later years to spread the gospel. The worst part was dogs barking or following me. But I never got bitten, though I did hurt my fingers in some of the letterboxes 😀.
- I decided in school that I wanted to be a Metalwork teacher. You could become one in one of two ways:
- Get a good Leaving Certificate and get into a third-level training college. In Ireland, it was Thomond College of Education in Limerick, which has now merged into the University of Limerick.
- Get an engineering apprenticeship, which didn’t require the Leaving Certificate. After you qualified, you could do a slightly more condensed course in Thomond College and get a small wage while doing the course. This option seemed more attractive, so I went for it.
- So, I became an apprentice Maintenance Fitter/Turner. It began with one-year off the job training in AnCO, Donnybrook, Cork, where we went through about a month or two for each skill (I’ll include hit singles that were out at the time, which make it more atmospheric – at least to me 😀 );
- Bench Fitting – Bee Gees: How Deep is Your Love
- Welding – Wings: Mull of Kintyre
- Milling – Bill Withers: Lovely Day
- Turning (Lathe work) – Kate Bush: Wuthering Heights
- Pneumatics and Hydraulics – Motors: Airport – I still have the 12-inch blue vinyl single
- Pipe fitting – Boney M: Rivers of Babylon
- Machine maintenance – Justin Hayward: Forever Autumn
- We also did a few weeks of work experience. I spent time in two factories, now long gone; Progress Engineering in White’s Cross Cork, and Metal Products Ltd. who operated a factory producing nuts, bolts and other metal components in Albert Road.
- Then, for three years I worked in Irish Dunlop in Centre Park Road Cork and spent some time on block release in the Regional Technical College in Cork. I also did night classes in engineering-related subjects.
- Because I was too young to apply for Thomond College when I completed my apprenticeship (you had to be over 21 to do the condensed course), I applied to London City Mission for a year of voluntary work. My title was Voluntary Evangelist. I worked in Covent Garden Christian Centre. We worked with the homeless, local senior citizens, tourists and office workers.
- Then I came back to Ireland and did three years training in Thomond College of Education in Limerick. Each year, I did teaching practice in Cork schools. We did very little metalwork in college, but we did lots of physics, chemistry, engineering science, psychology, sociology, philosophy and maths and various education-related modules. And we attempted to learn Irish, with three weeks on Cape Clear island off the coast of Cork in sunny June 84. Happy days!
- When I qualified, I did get some jobs, but there were more Metalwork Teachers than full-time positions available. And by that time, I was more interested in helping with all sorts of things in Cork Baptist Church and the wider evangelical scene. This eventually led to me applying to work full time with Baptist Missions Ireland. So, I worked with Limerick Baptist Church and Tipperary Christian Fellowship for about nine years as a Mission Worker.
- After that, I decided to see if I could get back into secular work and help out in the churches on a part-time voluntary basis, particularly Tipperary Christian Fellowship. So, I did a graduate diploma in Computing at the University of Limerick and hung around for a couple of years as a Teaching Assistant.
- Then I became an instructional designer, which entailed creating IT courseware for all sorts of applications. Nearly everything I’ve done involved some form of teaching – or learning. That lasted about 20 years. I’m sort of retired now, but I sometimes think I’d like to start another career. But I’m very dopey these days 😀.
All the jobs had their stresses, but as time goes by, you just tend to remember the good times, and I had lots of good times. I was unemployed a few times. I usually took the opportunity to update my skills. I’d hate to being doing nothing. I still have books from the various eras in the attic. The oldest one goes all the way back to secondary school.
Of all the jobs I’ve had, I’m probably most nostalgic about my time in Irish Dunlop. On any given day, you’d be interacting with so many pleasant people. Sadly, it closed way back in 1983, but it wasn’t my fault. At least I hope not 😀.
Hibernia Gospel 