What do you do when you no longer have to get up for work? Ten retirees tell their stories of life after work
Noel Crotty"Take control of your own destiny"
Retired in 2010: I was a sergeant based in Garda headquarters when I retired just over two years ago, aged 53. I enjoyed my work and could, and would, have worked for a further seven years but financially I would have ended up worse off because of all the cutbacks in pay.
I approached retirement with a positive mental attitude. There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. I’m learning Spanish. I paint pictures and do some writing. I keep fit by walking, cycling and gardening. I also have a lot of DIY projects. I’m still young enough to reinvent myself and do other things but I’m not in any mad rush to get another job. The best thing about retirement is having more control over my own life and time. One’s job or career is very important, but it is still just a part of one’s life. One has to have a life outside of it.
I would advise anyone thinking of retiring to take control of your own destiny by deciding when to leave, rather than being forced to leave when the time comes. There’s a certain dignity when you are in control.
Liz McManus"I feel like I have been reborn"
Retired in 2011: I retired from politics last February when the election was called. I was 64 and I didn't want to be a TD with a travel pass. I was in the Dáil for almost 20 years and a public representative for 32. It was a tremendous job but very demanding and I was determined that I wouldn't go on indefinitely. The first few months after leaving politics were spent sorting out papers. For three months I was shredding documents.
I was a writer before I was a TD and I was accepted on to the MPhil course on creative writing in Trinity College in September. It’s one year long and very intense. I feel like I have been reborn. I find it very stimulating and enriching. I love hill-walking too but I’m so busy with the course that I’ve no time at the moment. I’m in a new phase now and it’s very satisfying.
Michael Murphy"I had been milking cows since 1966"
Currently retiring: Retirement for me, as a farmer, is a gradual transition. It started last year when I transferred the bulk of our dairy farm, in Knockanore, east Waterford, to our son Kieran, with the blessing of my wife, Vera. My father died without a will the year I was born and we saw the stranglehold it could have on a place. It was always on my mind that we would plan ahead.
I had been milking cows since 1966 but now my son does all the milking, with some help from Vera, and I handle the grassland management. Kieran and his wife have moved into our farmhouse and a few weeks ago we moved to our new home across the road. That’s a big change. For 62 years I was living on one side of the road and now I’m living on the other but you have to move on. A lot of farmers find that the next generation is not interested in taking over the farm, so we are lucky. I’m still involved in farm politics with the IFA and that’s important to me.
Tommy Kiernan"We went ti Ibiza"
Retired in 2009: I worked in a ticket office for Irish Rail before I retired three years ago. Retiring early – I was almost 62 – was the best thing I ever did. I was always conscious of people who worked up to retirement and then died a year later and I didn't want that to happen to me.
I used to get up at 5.30 every morning and for the first six months I was still waking up at that time. I got rid of the two clocks and started to get used to it. I don’t have a problem filling my days. I go for a walk in St Catherine’s Park here in Leixlip for two or two and a half hours every day. I meet plenty of people I know. I visit our daughter in Portlaoise once a week. It’s great to be free to do what you want. Last year we were invited to a wedding in Ibiza and we were able to stay three weeks. We’ve a big garden too, so there’s always something to do. I don’t know how I had the time to do anything when I was working.
Ena O'Mahoney"I found the first few weeks difficult"
Retired in 2002: I was director of nursing at Cherry Orchard Hospital when I retired in 2002. We were doing a lot of recruitment in the Philippines, so I was very busy at the time. Between family and work commitments I seemed to be catching up with myself all the time. My daughter had just had her first child and I felt it was the right time to go.
I found the first few weeks difficult – I kept getting up at the same time, as though I was going to work. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation had just started a retired section, so I got involved with that, eventually becoming chair. I got involved with the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and now I’m the vice-president. When I give talks to people on retirement courses I tell them to get their social-welfare history, their PRSI contributions, and see what they might be entitled to and if they can improve it.
The best thing about retirement is the freedom to do what you want when you want. I did think of taking up knitting but I haven’t time.
Marie Doyle"Sundays are lovely now"
Retired in 2003: I had been teaching in the same school for 27 years when I retired. I loved teaching and if I had to start again, I would still choose teaching as a career. But Sunday nights are lovely now. I remember all those Sunday nights when I would be thinking of the week ahead, the lesson plans, the copies to be corrected. Sundays are one of the nice pluses of retirement.
It took a while to relax into retirement. School is so structured, a bell ringing every 40 minutes, work to do in the evenings, subject meetings. You are teaching up to the last hour and then suddenly it’s all over. I think they should bring in a more phased retirement – perhaps cutting down on classroom hours and doing more mentoring or administration work, or even job-sharing in the final months.
I’m involved with groups of retired teachers, and the Senior Citizens Parliament. I still keep abreast with what’s happening in education. I wish all the newly retired teachers well. It’s a new chapter. I hope the transition will be a very happy one for them.
Fr Colm Kilcoyne"It's not a good age for making friends"
Retired in 2010: I retired nearly two years ago when I reached 75. Retiring priests have the option of staying in the parish where they last worked, or moving somewhere different. I had been in Cong and I loved it but I decided to move to Castlebar where I was born. I have family and friends here and that's very important. One of the nice things is that I'm meeting people I haven't seen in maybe 40 years. I would advise retiring priests to think carefully about where they live. Somewhere might look lovely but do you know anyone there? It's not a good age for making friends.
Priests can opt to work on past 75, as an assistant priest. I didn’t do that but I am on call, so I often find myself saying Mass. I like that because it would be a bit abrupt if you just stopped one day. My life is very pleasant. I don’t want to sound morbid but retirement gives you a chance to look back at your life and reflect on it all. It’s a blessing to live long enough to be able to do that.
John Lonergan"I jog 20 miles a week"
Retired in 2010: I retired as governor of Mountjoy Prison on June 7th, 2010, after more than 42 years in the prison service. How is retirement? It's great. The secret is to plan in advance. Be psychologically ready to go. I was planning it for at least a year before I went and I haven't had a single pang of regret. It's not that I wasn't happy – I loved my work – but the time had come.
After I left I wrote a book ( The Governor) and that was very therapeutic. It was an opportunity to reflect on my life and it was a great transition from work to retirement.
I’m involved with charitable boards such as Barnardos, Archways, the Carers Association, Young Ballymun. And I’m fairly busy giving talks to communities about things like parenting, suicide, all those things I would have had a lot of experience of in my job. Keeping active is very important. I do 20 miles of jogging a week. I’d worry about people who retire on an impulse or for the wrong reason because the novelty of the pension will go and you still have a life to lead.
Tom Fennell"I miss the excitement of working with young people"
Retired in 2009: I'm having the best time since I retired more than two years ago. I had been lecturing in consumer behaviour at DIT on Aungier Street. My wife retired before me. She does a lot with the local church, so I help her out a bit. My two sons are doing PhDs and I do some proof-reading for them. We do a lot more travelling now. We went to Kinsale for three days last week. You get great value when you can go to these places during the week.
I still see my colleagues but I miss the excitement of working with young people, full of verve, drive, hope and enthusiasm. They are on a tremendous adventure and it’s a privilege to be involved in it. I went on courses for about five years before I retired and I’d recommend that. The union (Teachers Union of Ireland) and DIT were very good for that. It’s not so much the information you pick up – it’s that you are reshaping your perspectives, acclimatising yourself.
Mary Kotsonouris"I am a very unambitious, disorganised person"
Retired in 1991: I never see myself as retired from anything. I was a judge in the Dublin Metropolitan Court for nine years but I resigned in 1991. I had become interested in the courts set up by Dáil Éireann in 1920 and wanted to study the subject. I ended up writing two books about it. And then I was plunged into other things – such as being the regulator of Premium Rate Telephone Services, as well as chair of the Sentence Review Group. I also did the Murphy's Lawtelevision series with Mike Murphy. And latterly I found myself on the Press Council – I only stepped down from that in 2010.
My last foray into publishing was a book about the District Court, which was published last year ( Tis All Lies, Your Worship). All these were lucky chances but they sound incredibly smug listed out like that. In fact, I am a very unambitious, disorganised person. I shudder when someone asks me to give advice to others. The best advice I ever got was to learn how to drive, which I did quite a while ago now. And if I can do that, anyone can.
