Lessons in life from the Sammon of Knowledge

It’s well over a decade ago that what is now the University of Galway decided to take time and look at itself from a number of perspectives – internal and external – and one of those discussions centred on how it could play a bigger role at the heart of the city’s affairs.

That may seem strange given that, even including Trinity College, there is no third-level institution in Ireland that is more at the heart of its base – but this was more a way of asking why so many Galway students didn’t see Galway as their first, and perhaps only, option for third-level education.

The debate was why so many people didn’t see the university as ‘theirs’; if they didn’t go there or their children didn’t go there, it was just a big campus with a beautiful Quad that they knew little or nothing about.

I was at this think-in and another person in attendance made a simple but salient point: “If you want people to see the university as part of the city, why don’t you take down the eight foot wall that’s around most of it?” he asked.

Because walls are a sign that you should stay on the other side of them.

Daniel Sammon didn’t see walls in the university; he saw only opportunities – and he took them with both hands. It was the hallmark of his life which came to an end with his death late last month after a short illness.

I won’t pretend that I knew the Renvyle man well, but I knew him well enough to remember the lasting impression he made on me almost a decade ago.

I was lecturing on a part-time basis in journalism at what was then NUIG when a student of a more mature persuasion gently entered the room. He introduced himself as Daniel Sammon and said he was studying for an MA in Writing.

And even though he was in his mid-sixties, coming to college more than 40 years after doing his Leaving Cert in St Mary’s College, his thirst for knowledge was unquenchable – to the point that he politely asked if he could quietly sit in for a few classes because he loved learning.

I didn’t know what the protocol was, but I couldn’t see the harm in it and anyway I thought he’d have enough of listening to me after a week or two.

I don’t think he missed a lecture that semester.

Not alone that; he did all the assignments, producing stories based on scenarios we dreamed up for practice purposes, of jobs announcements and big fires and Ministerial visits.