Maeve Binchy of course is dead right to be enthusiastic about evening classes even though as she says not everyone stays the full course.
The adult education brochures for UCD and TCD alone, make great reading. On the proposition often put forward in this corner, that three of the most valuable sets of people in this country are the archaeologists, the forestry people (official and otherwise) and those who loo after our fisherie with a bias towards the inland fisheries folk, you don't have far to look.
Archaeology in fact you can have ten consecutive weekly lectures under the tutorship of Muiris O'Sullivan on Irish Archaeology in its European Setting which, it is said, will be useful to beginners and more advanced students alike. After Christmas, the course is headed simply Irish Archaeology and there will be an archaeological excursion in May.
Each course costs £60 for the ten lectures, with concessions for, among others, those on Social Welfare payments alone, and those who live on old age non contributory pension.
In Trinity they have Wildlife and Man A Natural History of Ireland From the Ice Age To The Year 2000. Golly! The briefing tells us that about 10,000 years ago, Ireland emerged from the last cold spell of an Ice Age and almost all we have of flora and fauna developed since then. There are eight lectures with a remarkable spread of information for all.
First Ireland after the ice the uplands and bogs tundra, arctic and alpine relict plants and animals. 2: The freshwater network wildlife in Irish rivers and lakes. (So much the work of our friends in Central Fisheries and other Boards.) 3: Native wood lands and their wildlife. (What trees are you planting this autumn?) 4: The coastal marine environment sources of biodiversity from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. 5: Farming and wildlife impacts on native wildlife from the coming of man to the CAP. (Hares have abandoned one slice of planted land, where they used to enjoy ambling along the grassy paths.
Not since the trees went over about four feet.) 6: Direct action introductions and extinctions of plants and animals. 7: The changing face of the countryside afforestation, industrialisation, land use change and the impact on wildlife. 8: Wildlife and man what future for our native wildlife and wild places as we head into the 21st century.
£35 for the series concession rate £20. There's a treasure of reading in these two brochures alone. Learn Chinese learn Polish.
The Stock Market is it all just a Gamble? And so on. Read, go.