Part of the O'Shea Family Tree
The eagle-eyed will note the number of
schoolteachers!
This was partly caused in many Catholic families in the North of Ireland by the lack
of opportunity in other spheres. In the case of the O'Sheas, Fitzpatricks and
Corishes it appears to have been a pre-disposition of nature - almost a character defect!
With the exception of Michael and Brendan Fitzpatrick, who
attended Strawberry Hill Teacher Training College in London, all other members 'trained'
at Drumcondra College of Education, Dublin. It was there that the Corishises, from
Wexford, met and married the O'Sheas from County Antrim. It was there too that both
families met Pat Fitzsimons from Ballyclander, just outside Ardglass, County Down, and Ned
Carton from Belfast, resulting in the meeting of Tom O'Shea with Madge Mulheron in
Ardglass, at a village dance in, of all places, the local Masonic Hall.
Tom married Madge, Pat married her sister Alice (another
teacher) and Ned married yet another sister, Agnes. They were a great crowd of
people, full of merry chat and debate - the craic, as the Irish put it.
Often, as a child I listened to heated debates about education and politics, full of
excited opinion and much laughter.
Surrounded by so many teachers, and being a dreamy kind of boy,
and a poor student with a natural dislike of school (except for the little local school in
Ardglass during the 2nd World War), I knew that to be a teacher was the last thing on
earth that I would ever wish. To go to sea and see the world was my abiding
ambition, until Mum and Dad called in a cousin from Dublin, Michael Costello, Master
Mariner, to discuss the matter.
Michael dropped anchor in our front sitting room and told them and me
hair-raising tales about the rough life at sea when he set sail as a boy - literally set
sail, aboard a windjammer. The upshot was that I, at the age of sixteen, was forbidden the
career, resulting in a violent row with my Father, largely acting on behalf of
my very concerned Mother. This was the only serious confrontation we ever had - apart from
him catching me smoking at the age of ten, and also, I must confess, robbing an orchard
far away from home at about the same age. In the latter case I have the notion that
it was not the robbery he objected to so much as the time it took me to do it - me having
disappeared into the darkness for a goodly number of hours. (Oh God! I've just
remembered other events! Well, they weren't really rows!
It was just that as a lifelong Total Abstinener he was totally disgusted and
distraught to find me the worse for wear through the demon drink, even though I was quite
a bit older than ten.)
Years later I did escape to sea, working as a waiter, dishwasher,
laundryman and lavatory attendant, which disciplines did not contain within themselves the
nucleus of a satisfactory career. By chance, as I have related elsewhere (or am
about to relate) I stumbled into the world of industrial publicity in London
and began to develop some skills as a copywriter and typographical designer, abilities
that were not in great demand in the Ireland to which I returned in 1968,.
Deeply involved in the emergency politics of the time, I took the
advice of Dr Dorothy Eagleson of the Adult Education Centre in Belfast and went back to
school - at the age of 39! God Save the Mark! Four years later, with a
couple of 'A' Levels, a Degree of sorts in Education and a N.I. Assembly Election behind
me, the reluctant teacher was born.
Who said that about being a slow learner? 
As one little girl said to me in class, "You're not
like a REAL teacher Mr O'Shea, are you?"
Clever girl. She had me taped.