"The only examination I cried over was the Leaving Cert because I never thought I would get it." Forty-two examinations later, John Devane is a qualified solicitor working in Limerick.
He was one of three early school-leavers who met the press yesterday to promote the Back to Education programme run by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. The essence of the programme is that people unemployed for more than six months and who are over 21 can get their unemployment assistance while doing approved second- and third-level courses.
Lone parents also qualify and, it was announced yesterday, people receiving the disability allowance or blind person's pension will qualify from September.
When Mr Devane left school at 15 it was very much against his mother's wishes. "I was the only member of my family who didn't continue in education." While he had a number of jobs, his total lack of formal qualifications meant that by 1987 "I couldn't get work at all and I decided to go back and do the Leaving Cert".
With the help of schemes run by the Department of Education he progressed through a law degree at UCC, overcoming the loss of a year because of a brain haemorrhage following an accident. "I am now a qualified solicitor for the past 15 months working in Limerick."
Dubliner John Finn left school at 14. "At the time it was the thing to do." By the late 1980s he, too, found that his complete lack of qualifications ruled out even the most menial jobs. When he went back to do his Leaving Cert, "I found I had a flair for art." That led to a degree from the National College of Art and Design. Today he teaches art in Patrician College Finglas, "and I absolutely love it".
Another Dubliner, Maria White, left school at 14. It was when she couldn't help her own child with homework that she went to St Andrew's Resource Centre to learn basic English and maths. Education, she said, was "like a drug" and she ended up with an honours degree in humanities from St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. She now teaches part-time.