• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

belgianwaffle

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives

A More Innocent Time

22 June, 2012
Posted in: Cork, Ireland

I know someone who took three weeks off work to nurse her children through the State examinations which ended today. I seem to remember that my parents went on holidays before I finished my Leaving Certificate. My sister maintains it was the matric (now abolished), but you see my point.

This brings me to a story. When I sat down in the Lee Maltings (now a trendy research institute) to do my matric in 1986 (yes, alas, neither today nor yesterday), I was young and considerably less knowledgeable than I thought. The invigilator who talked us through the form on the first day said, “Where it says place of birth, put Cork; they’re not interested in the competition between the Bons and the Ville.” As I had my pen poised to write that I was born in the Bons Secours Maternity hospital, his warning was timely.

That’s enough exam nostalgia for one day.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. MT says

    22 June, 2012 at 23:29

    Just wait till the competition between Clinique Saint Jean and the Edith Cavell hots up.

  2. disgruntled says

    24 June, 2012 at 17:12

    ha! was just talking to my mum about the fact that my cousin was due to give birth any day now ‘in the Rotunda’ (I think? Anyway, where both my mum and my older sister was born). This is clearly an Irish thing.

  3. admin says

    26 June, 2012 at 23:25

    MT – I’m sure in Bxls they talk of little else.

    Disgruntled, really? Don’t people from other countries talk about the hospitals they were born in? How odd.

  4. MT says

    30 June, 2012 at 05:54

    I was once party to a conversation bwtween two Cork people, where one of the opening questions was “Christians or Pres?”. Do these markers of identity assume the same significance in other countries?

  5. Oonagh Buckley says

    8 July, 2012 at 21:27

    Wait till you talk to a denizen of South Dublin on the vexed question of The Merrion Wing…..

  6. admin says

    11 July, 2012 at 11:24

    Gosh, a whole world out there, I imagine.

Primary Sidebar

Flickr Photos

IMG_8847aIMG_8881
More Photos
June 2012
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« May   Jul »

Categories

  • Belgium (146)
  • Boys (927)
  • Cork (218)
  • Daniel (665)
  • Dublin (487)
  • Family (611)
  • Hodge (47)
  • Ireland (893)
  • Liffey Journal (7)
  • Michael (644)
  • Miscellaneous (71)
  • Mr. Waffle (603)
  • Princess (1,090)
  • Reading etc. (577)
  • Siblings (224)
  • The tale of Lazy Jack Silver (18)
  • Travel (193)
  • Work (193)

Subscribe via Email

Subscribe Share
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
© 2003–2023 belgianwaffle · Privacy Policy · Write