When I Was Your Age: Ireland’s Grandparents Share Memories and Wisdom, by Valerie Cox (Hachette Books, Ireland, €21.00/£18.50)
This is a compelling collection of interviews with grandparents, some well-known, some not so well-known. The collection will be immensely interesting to those of a certain vintage, both those who are and who do not happen to be grandparents.
Former RTÉ journalist Valerie Cox prompts her interviewees to reminisce of what it was like for them when they were growing up in Ireland. Among the participants in the exercise were Mary Kennedy of Nationwide, former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, Peig MacManus, a former resident of Dublin’s Central City tenements, Bernadette MacDonough, a settled traveller, jazz and blues singer Mary Coughlan and broadcaster Séan O’Rourke.
Almost invariably they all claimed that their parents were very devout and that, as Tom McGrath of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions noted, their religion brought a calmness, direction and peace into their homes and their lives.
In another of the interviewees, Mary O’Rourke, the former Fianna Fáil politician, her grandchildren have an excellent role model. She served as a minister of state and as leader of Seanad Éireann.
Breaking barriers
She recalls in the book how her desire to break barriers in a world of men stemmed from an overheard conversation in her Athlone home involving Éamon de Valera, following an evening of electioneering. Still firmly believing in “a serious work ethic”, she advises young people to “be true to themselves and to who they are, and your parents and what they taught you”.
Game of Thrones and Derry Girls actor, Ian McElhiney, expresses concerns echoed by the other grandparents. He acknowledges that life for children today is better than heretofore – better access to education, better career and job opportunities and an enlightened spirit of tolerance across society – yet he warns against the children becoming “wrapped up in electronics, gadgetry and mobile phones” and not going out, playing and enjoying the outdoors.
Bertie Ahern also wishes that his grandchildren would not lose touch with nature and reality. He stated his determination that they would not think that “food grew on supermarket shelves, already wrapped”. To this end he rented a couple of allotments in north Co. Dublin, where they grow vegetables and even grapes. Bertie also expressed his concern that his two daughters seemed to be spending half their lives driving the grandchildren to a myriad of ‘activities’.
Exhibiting the wisdom garnered over the years, the grandparents present Valerie Cox with some memorable quotations. Some are most revealing, not least one attributed to Louis Copeland, the well-known Dublin master tailor. Reflecting on the contribution priests and religious made across the last two centuries to this polity, that is Ireland, he exclaimed “I hate when I hear people giving-out about the nuns and priests”.
One of the most interesting grandparents listed is Yann Goulet. A renowned sculptor, he is described by his daughter, Armelle, herself a grandparent. Goulet, a Breton nationalist, was invited to play the bag-pipes at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. While there, he was photographed shaking hands with the notorious Dr Goebbels.
Subsequently Yann was accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II and had to flee to safety in Ireland. According to Armelle, he was a “very, very strict grandfather”. His is still a controversial name.
In signing off Valerie Cox, herself the grandmother of Brian, Henry, Ellie and Michael, stresses that true wealth comes not from material things, but often from love, compassion and kindness, and the life values the older generation wish to pass on.
She concludes that “while there is concern for the future of the upcoming generation, there is also great hope and faith in young people to navigate the special challenges of this era, and find creative and sustaining solutions”.