BOOK OF THE DAY: The Boys of St Columb'sBy Maurice Fitzpatrick. The Liffey Press 248pp €18.95
THIS IS the book of the film, or more precisely the documentary, which was made for RTÉ with a script prepared by Fitzpatrick himself and by Tom Collins, and which was also shown on BBC. Whether conveyed by text or film, the idea is an excellent one, offering a detailed and sometimes intimate view into the education of a group of extraordinary figures, all of whom passed through the classrooms of St Columb’s, Derry, in the same period. But in particular, it is valuable to have it all in the shape of a book, in more detail than was possible in the film, and in a format to which one can readily return. Here we have the immensely telling and instructive thoughts of its subjects, in the form of full transcriptions of interviews, as well as sensible commentary suitable for all readers.
The group comprises Nobel laureates John Hume and Seamus Heaney, former bishop Edward Daly, musicians Phil Coulter and Paul Brady, poet and academic Séamus Deane, political activist Eamonn McCann and former ambassador James Sharkey. The book accepts the task of trying to explain how this constellation formed, and it offers one large and convincing explanation: the 1947 Education Act with its concomitant, the 11-plus exam. Indeed, one feels that the book could have had an alternative title: the 11-plus arrives in Derry. The exam gave an unprecedented opportunity to clever boys from poor farming communities, like Heaney, or from the Bogside, like Deane and McCann. Of course, the 11-plus needed something to work on, and apart from the native talents of these individuals, there was also an environment in which education was accorded respect – after all, one might become a priest, and at any rate escape a life of drudgery.
St Columb’s excelled in the teaching of the humanities: Heaney had excellent Latin and English masters. Fitzpatrick explains this by reference to the British public school system, which in many respects St Columb’s sought to imitate. True enough, no doubt, but I wonder if this is the whole story: the Catholic Church has its own tradition of Latinity, and one should not forget the lingering respect for poetry in Irish communities even before the benefits of the Eleven Plus were conferred.
The teachers themselves are recalled, and one in particular, Seán B O’Kelly, an English master, taught both Heaney and Deane. By their fruits ye shall know them? Heaney notes that the authors he read with O’Kelly – Wordsworth, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hardy – he learned by heart, achieving an inwardness with them which was nurtured by O’Kelly’s sensibility, as well as his intelligence. There was another side to the instruction, though: the regime at the school was harsh, verging on brutality.
Not only was the subject-matter liberating – so was the mere fact that one had got into St Columb’s, sometimes from a background inured to poverty and the injustice of a state and a city structured by shameless gerrymandering in the latter half of the 20th century. St Columb’s gave an articulate voice, and a good preparation for adroit and determined action, to the likes of Hume and McCann. People mention the Civil Rights marches as an influence on their organising and advocacy, so it is instructive to be reminded that they would also have been conscious of the pioneering marches of the Irish in England in support of Northern Catholics in the 1950s and 1960s. The book is full of telling detail: boys from the Bogside played soccer, but St Columb’s was strictly GAA; Heaney’s primary school at Anahorish was a mixed school under Catholic management. Full of energetic and concise formulations, the interviews make this is an indispensable document.
Edward Larrissy holds the chair in poetry at the School of English , Queen’s University Belfast
