I was born in Rostrevor, Co Down, on December 8th, 1916, but moved in 1922 to Drogheda, where I attended St Joseph's Christian Brothers' School. In 1934, I was one of a mere handful of boys to sit the Leaving Certificate examination, by contrast with the great multiple who now take it on their way to third-level education. Then, of Irish adults in the 20 to 24 age-bracket, only about one in 15 had third-level education; now, it is one in three.

Secondary education became a free service in 1968, extending and strengthening the dedicated work of religious orders for many decades previously in providing broad second-level courses at low cost for boys and girls of less-well-off families.

My lifetime covers the whole history of this State and, in this retrospect, I propose to take a personal look at how we have fared since independence was achieved for most of Ireland in 1922. As you shall be reminded, the first half of the 20th century is by no means a bright memory.

I see five distinct periods:

1. The early period - 1922 to 1939

2. The war and early post-war period - 1939 to 1957

3. The first recovery period - 1958 to 1969

4. A setback period - 1970 to 1986

5. The second recovery period - 1987 to recently

I fear we have now entered a sixth - another setback - period, heralded earlier but intensified since the horrific terrorist attacks on the US on September 11th last.

The first periods were marred by a civil war, had to bear heavy reconstruction costs and install the institutions - army, police and courts - needed to back democratic rule, then endure an "economic war" against Britain in the 1930s, followed by the perils and shortages of World War II.

It was a time of dedicated effort to establish the viability and respectability of the new State. In the financial field this was marked by the introduction of a national currency, the successful raising, as soon as the civil war was over, of a National Loan for £10 million (equivalent to nearly £400 million today), the reduction of total public expenditure to its lowest level ever by 1939, and the containment of wartime budget deficits to a mere £16 million in the aggregate.

After the war, as supplies slowly became available again, there was a spurt of economic growth but we were still over-dependent on exporting agricultural products to the British market, where consumers greatly outnumbered farmers and low food prices were the focus of policy. Measures to curb menacing deficits in our external payments caused a slowdown, leading to high levels of unemployment and emigration.

By the mid-1950s the country was enveloped in a palpable cloud of despondency. Exports of industrial goods still accounted for only 6 per cent of total exports. The old self-sufficiency policies were getting us nowhere and it seemed that independence was an empty achievement.

The reappraisal of policies in 1958, with which, with some colleagues, I was involved, resulted in the decision to abandon protectionism, welcome foreign investment in Ireland, and prepare for competitive participation in a free-trade world.

This revived confidence and, with the support of buoyancy in world trade, introduced an unprecedented spell of economic growth running well into the 1960s. Unfortunately, world prices then began a steep rise, culminating in the quadrupling of oil prices in 1973.

By a happier coincidence, this was also the year we joined the European Community in the prospect of wider horizons for our new outward-looking stance and greater support for our agriculture.

The policy reaction to the oil crisis was, however, perverse - borrowing abroad to finance everyday needs as if nothing had happened - but the crowning mistake was the 1977 Manifesto which aimed at spending our way to full employment in a few years by even bigger foreign borrowing. It hardly required the second oil crisis of 1979 to discredit a policy which submerged us in foreign debt and heralded years of stagnation. All we could do in the first half of the 1980s was to slow down the slide to national bankruptcy.

It was from 1987 on, with the broad-minded support of the main Opposition, that the restoration of order in the public finances was effectively taken in hand. This return to financial rectitude, reinforced by the benefits of membership of the EU (including structural funds and a favourable exchange rate), the progressive improvement in education, large-scale inward investment in the newer technologies induced by grants and low taxation, and the moderation in income increases negotiated with the trade unions, ushered in the phenomenal economic growth of the 1990s.

This rests on a rapid expansion of high-grade competitive exports and has raised real national income by 50 per cent in that one decade. No change in my lifetime has been more remarkable or less predicted. In the midst of our euphoria, however, we were starkly reminded of just how vulnerable, as an economic mainstay, normally healthy livestock may be, and how susceptible we are to a slowing down of the world economy and the impact of terrorism.

This is a good point at which to review how present conditions compare with those of the 1920s. At the time of the first Census (1926) the population was almost 3 million; it had dipped to 2.8 million by 1961 but has since risen to 3.7 million and is likely to top 4 million within a few years.

In 1926, more than half the workforce was on the land, 650,000 in all, many of them so-called "relatives assisting", without cash incomes and barely subsisting. Only one person was engaged in industry for every 11 said to be engaged in agriculture. The majority of the population lived in rural areas.

Now only 136,000 are engaged in agriculture - less than a quarter of the number in 1926 - and three work in industry for every one on the land. Employment has risen sharply in recent years. The national workforce is now one-third greater than in 1926. Two-thirds of the population is urban. Immigration has replaced emigration.

The enormous improvement I have seen in living standards, bringing them up to those of Britain, France and Germany, can, perhaps, be most vividly illustrated by reference to housing and health. As recently as 40 years ago, more than half the dwellings in the Republic of Ireland were already over 60 years old and fewer than half of the total number were connected to a public water supply.

Now, of a 50 per cent higher total, only one third are over 60 years old and a mere 1 per cent without a piped water supply.

Better housing and nutrition, improved hygiene, smoke-free zones, the advent of antibiotics, have all helped to reduce mortality: infant mortality, for instance, which was 134 per 1,000 in 1921, is now down to six.

Today's babies can expect to live much longer than the babies of the 1920s - 15 years longer for boys and 20 for girls. Now, I understand, scientists think that progress in renewing organs, bones and tissue may gain us immortality by the end of this century - an awesome prospect!

Apart from the swing from a mainly rural to a mainly urban society, one of the most significant social changes in my time relates to marriage. The age of marriage in the 1920s was 35 on average for men and 29 for women - later still in rural areas as an outcome of the Famine.

Fifty years on, as urbanisation progressed, the average had dropped to 26 for men and 24 for women but the recent tendency is again upwards, and not just because of exceptionally high house prices.

Marriage is being postponed or set aside in favour of cohabitation. Births to unmarried mothers are already one-third of Dublin births and first births to mothers over 30 are on the increase. A high proportion of women now work outside the home.

One wonders what all this may portend for the future of Irish society - will the children of the new Millennium have as happy, varied, carefree, and reasonably well-behaved a childhood as we had? It occurs to me that a present-day Malthus could add to his three famous population controls - war, famine and pestilence - a fourth; the propensity for young adults to postpone parenthood.

One of the profound changes I have been glad to see is the improvement in the status of women. It is difficult to believe that it is not all that long since women were degraded and disadvantaged in many ways - denied admission to universities and professions, without voting rights, discriminated against in job access and pay, treated in law as chattels. There has been welcome change.

They are as numerous as men in third-level institutions as students, though not as yet as lecturers. They are already on a par with men in most professions and on their way there in business. But full equality in all spheres, including parliamentary representation, has yet to be attained in Ireland and there are still large communities in the world where women suffer subordination and even ritual mutilation.

Religious observance has declined amongst the young but not, I think, their disposition to help others, whether in the Third World or at home.

Some, regrettably, do not recognise the perennial wisdom enshrined in the phrase: "The door to happiness opens outwards" or, as St Francis put it, "It is in giving that we receive". Their search for pleasure, excitement, or escape from unhappiness, is too often reflected in resort to alcohol, drugs and crime.

It has, at the same time, to be recognised that, for many in urban ghettos, it is only recently that the hopeless prospect of a lifetime of unemployment and misery is being lifted.

The motivation for crime is shifting evermore towards greed rather than need; criminal gangs have emerged to dominate the lucrative drug trade or engage in armed robbery; and, with big money involved, the criminal scene has become more violent and ruthless. One murder in my youth used be a cause cΘlΦbre for a year; now it is an almost everyday occurrence.

I am glad to see treatment being preferred to jail for minor offences related to drug-addiction but I regret that too little use is still being made of alternatives to imprisonment for minor offences generally.

A welcome change, which I was able to help along, is our attitude to the re-unification of Ireland, our acceptance of the so-called principle of consent - that unification depends on the free will of a majority in Northern Ireland.

However, the great hopes for a new era of peace raised by the Belfast Agreement, the referendums, North and South, and the dropping of Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 Constitution have been imperilled by continuing distrust and unwillingness to compromise.

The recent commitment of an illegal group to abandon arms and respect democratic decisions has allayed anxieties sharpened by the terrorist atrocities in the US. The rule of law is an essential safeguard of personal freedom and civilised living and must prevail.

Northern Ireland stands out as one of the places in Christendom where love of one's neighbour is gravely deficient. It is deplorable that sectarian bitterness is still so strong that little children could be grossly intimidated on their way to school.

A prolonged effort, from childhood onwards, is needed to promote understanding, tolerance and fellowship. It has always seemed to me that there is a particularly strong case for desegregation of schooling in Northern Ireland, yet Christian leaders still favour denominational education.

To the Irish language I have been loyal in my fashion, inspired by a great lay-teacher, Peadar McCann, who also introduced me to French. It is a marvel and a delight that Irish is still alive as a medium of inspiration as well as communication.

It is a pleasure for me to have Irish-speaking friends in both Gaeltacht and Galltacht. I am encouraged by the fluency and dedication of many in the media, by the popularity of gaelscoileanna (due in part, admittedly, to other factors), and by the quality of the books in Irish for children.

I had a part, through drafting the 1965 White Paper, in clarifying that policy is not directed towards replacement of English but rather to a bilingualism for which the only motivation could be love and respect for Irish, not compulsion or necessity. I would like to see more done to promote bilingualism by developing a wide range of contexts in which the use of Irish would be an accepted preference.

I rejoice in the remarkable improvement in my time in musical appreciation and performance. Lyric FM brightens our days. The National Concert Hall I regard as a great cultural asset - a model of elegance and economy.

As one who had taken for granted the selfless dedication to duty of those prominent in public life, I was shocked by the recent revelations of corruption, of the sacrifice of integrity to greed, in a number of cases.

Our political system should move quickly to close off what we used call "occasions of sin". There should be much less scope - and greater punishment - for tempters and tempted, where huge private gain can be made out of social necessity. What came to light showed that the financing of political parties was in need of reform.

Naturally, still vividly remembering the magic of Drogheda and its hinterland, I am in favour of the preservation of as much as possible of our natural heritage; indeed, I want to see greater concern for environmental protection worldwide.

I have always thought there was a wealth of wisdom in the following lines:

Make of the stones of the place

A pillow for thy head

And thou shalt see angels

Ascending and descending

Finally, a brief return to finance and economics. Fiscal policy being the only corrective instrument left to us as a euro-committed member of the EU, we need to retain enough flexibility to meet inevitable vicissitudes. Taxation and income policies should be conducive to competitiveness over a term of years, a desideratum not easily reconcilable with the Santa Claus aura which still surrounds annual budgets. These should be played down as corrective instruments serving the interests of good medium-term management.

Much poverty still remains in Ireland, the legacy, largely, of generations of unemployment and inadequate education and training. The eradication of this problem could, I fear, be slowed down by the inadequacy of financial support at third-level for students from poorer families, in part responsible for the high drop-out rate, as well as by the disturbing incidence of absenteeism from school amongst young children.

I confess to having been disappointed that more was not done in recent budgets to improve directly the lot of the poor and the ill. For this cause, I, for one, would not mind being "the little boy that Santa Claus forgot".

We are in an age when products and services are exposed to rapid obsolescence as well as to fluctuations in the world economy. We will need to keep updating our education and training throughout our lives.

Adaptability to a fast rate of change is a condition of remaining a high-income, full-employment country. Continued economic wellbeing will depend on staying in the frontline of scientific progress and high added-value production.

In the past, too much of our production was in competition with low-wage countries rather than with the high-income industrial nations whose ranks we have now joined.

We have the potential to stay in the frontline: it is up to ourselves to realise it. We must never again let despondency envelop us. And as we continue to advance, even if less quickly or steadily, let us be kinder to those in want, whether at home or in (or escaping from) the Third World.