My journey to primary school was an interesting one that often started long before the 9am school time. Both my parents worked and so I was dropped at a neighbours house at 7am and waited there until we went to school at 9am. Although this was back in the 1980s my resounding memory is how my neighbour used to make coffee with heated milk. Little did I know that she was making Cappuccinos far before they became popular.
My journey to secondary school was an early start too. I lived near Blessington and I went to school in De La Salle in Churchtown so it was a long commute. My parents would drop me to the 75 Bus stop in Firhouse at 7am and it was 45 mins from there to Nutgrove SC.
This made after school activities like rugby a big commitment which meant I didn’t get home until almost 8pm.
That said, it was a worthwhile experience. Despite the long commute and arduous bus journeys, I was lucky to have good friends waiting for me when I got there which made the trip well worth the effort.
Dr Colman Noctor is a Mental Health Lecturer in South East Technical University and a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist.
His specialist area of interest is the impact of technology on our mental lives. Colman is the resident Child Psychotherapist on the Ray D’Arcy Show on RTE Radio One, a weekly columnist with the Irish Examiner, the best-selling author of ‘The 4 to 7 Zone’ and ‘Cop On’. Colman hosted the very successful podcast series ‘Asking for a Parent’ and the Virgin Media Series ‘Big Year in Big School’. Colman is a regular contributor to Ireland AM and the Tonight Show.
Colman is a renowned national and international speaker on the topic of Children’s Mental Health, Parenting and Workplace Wellbeing. Colman has spoken at the IBEC Keep Well Summit, Zeminar and the Pendulum Summit and many more occasions.
On behalf of the Museum of Childhood Ireland and Robert Burns, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of our wonderful participants for their time and their stories. We are thrilled to be presenting this project and we hope you will enjoy following along with us in the coming weeks.
Have a story on this topic and want to get involved? Contact us on our social media sites, or email us at cbrowne@museumofchildhood.ie – we would love to hear from you!