College years are the touchstone for the rest of your life

Date Published: {J}

College reunions come in many shapes and sizes – and like buses you can wait forever for one of them and two come along at once. So it was last weekend that, the night before the Alumni of NUI Galway marked the successes of another half dozen of their most famous sons, we had a quieter gathering of our own past-pupils in Dublin.

It was 29 years since the dozen of us had been under the same roof – back when we were aspiring young journalists at the College of Commerce in Rathmines – and we’d been a long time talking about meeting up.

Truth was that, even though we all still worked in various strands of the media, we hadn’t really been in touch over the three decades that have almost passed since we exited out the front doors of Rathmines College and into the workforce.

The small turn-out for the reunion can be best explained by the fact that we were only 25 in number when we started out in 1981, and we were down the guts of ten more by the time it came to finishing our two year certificate course.

And so a dozen of a turn-out was quite impressive – and the enthusiasm of all was unbridled.

The years had seen hair recede in the same proportion as girths increased, but we recognised each other straight off and quickly established that one marriage and two and a half kids was the average return for 29 years of life since.

A night later, NUIG Alumni and staff gathered in droves – 450 of them as opposed to our motley crew – with a few of us interlopers who were lucky enough to be invited as they honoured six of their most famous sons in their annual awards ceremony in the confines of the wonderful Bailey Allen Hall.

Every year, the Alumni Awards throws up another handful of high achievers who have made a real difference in the world – and yet who are sufficiently proud of their association with their old alma mater to understand the depth of the honour that is bestowed on them.The fact that every one of them refer to it as UCG only shows they should never have changed its name in the first place, but that too is history now.

But whether it’s UCG or NUIG, the fact remains that this venerable institution has educated world leaders in so many fields – it’s something that the city as a whole can be very proud of.Because these are pillars of industry like Bord na Móna CEO Gabriel D’Arcy, Cisco GM Michael Conroy or Eli Lilly (ROI) MD Dr Gerald Farrell.

They are medical pioneers like Dr Brian Griffin of the Cleveland Clinic, or icons in our own business of journalism like Irish Independent Education Editor John Walshe from Forster Street, who was proudly surrounded by his family for a special homecoming and an acknowledgement of someone who proves that good, incisive reporting and analysis can make a difference.

Not surprisingly the biggest ovation on Saturday night was reserved for Sports Achievement and Leadership Award winner Colm Murray, the hugely popular RTE sports presenter who is fighting a courageous battle with Motor Neuron Disease, armed with his indefatigable sense of good humour and supported by a tremendous family.

Here is a man who has seen great sporting days and who has painted vivid pictures of those occasions for the rest of us who only get to see them on the box. But, whether you think of Cheltenham or USA ’94, he has never been more poetic than he was on Saturday night as he talked of his days in Galway, of the camaraderie on campus, of the grounding he received that has served him so well through life.

The point about all this, is that we should never forget where we came from because it makes us who we are. And this isn’t just about those of our generation who were lucky enough to go to third level at a time when it wasn’t the norm – it’s about holding on to the friends and the values that you had in your formative years because they are the touchstones for the rest of your life.

Whether you were lucky enough to attend an historic old university like UCG or a fledgling institute like the College of Commerce, you can take pride in your association and pick up where you left off with old friends because you shared a time in all of your lives that leaves an impression that lasts forever.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.