Although I didn't realise it at the time, the Synge Street CBS entrance exam - which I barely scraped through - proved to be the most important exam I ever passed. The school boasted some really outstanding teachers - Brothers Gilmore, Hunston and Kelleher, as well as renowned characters including `Danny' Cronin, `Thinners' Turner and, of course, Brother `Jigger' Ryle.
These men gave us a considerable amount of their personal time - on top of the standard classroom hours - and they did so with a kind of cynical humour that was usually most enjoyable. Brother Gilmore, for example, often spoke about "wasting his sweetness on the desert air". Of course, we didn't escape without a few wallops of the leather but we took them as our just deserts for cogging or some other equally heinous misdemeanour.
Brother Kelleher later became a friend of the family but it wasn't until at least 20 years after I left school that I plucked up the courage to ask what his christian name was (Brendan)!
Years later, when by general agreement at least one leg of the Celtic Tiger is due to our investment in the education and skills of the workforce, I sometimes think of the investment - for free - that these and many teachers like them have given us as their legacy for the future.
When I left school I got a job in what was for young school-leavers one of the best employers in Dublin - the Irish Pensions Trust. I stayed there for a short time - but long enough to meet my first and present wife. Then I succumbed to pressure from my parents to join the Civil Service. I landed in the Patents Office attached to the Department of Industry and Commerce.
For some reason or another many of my schoolmates also joined the Civil Service and many of them are now in senior positions across the most important Government Departments. While there is no formal network you can be assured that the `Synger' calling card is used and does work, sometimes in the most unlikely circumstances.
The Patents Office was a little world of its own. My job involved assessing applications for trade mark certification and giving my views to my superior officer, Miss Daly. The Controller, Dr Lennon, our boss, was a kind and courteous man but we youngsters often jokingly referred to him as the `Remote Comptroller.'
After I got married I decided to do a B Comm at night in UCD. By then I was a junior executive in the newly-formed IDA and it seemed to me that everyone other than myself had at least a Ph D in something or other. The B Comm was a great experience - it introduced me to such well known and top class teachers as Des Hally and Pearse Colbert in accounting and Dermot McAleese in political economy.
