Edel Coffey: There’s a reason why some cultures honour their elders — we used to be one of them

Edel Coffey: I’ve always prized experience, not just in professionals, but in friends too.

Recently, I read an interview with the TV presenter Maura Derrane (she of the Today show fame) where she spoke about how, at the age of 51, she doesn’t waste time worrying about “young ones” coming up behind her. “That’s just ridiculous,” she told The Sunday Independent. “I don’t have what they have – years younger – and they don’t have what I have – years of experience, years of knowledge.” 

And she was right. It is ridiculous to try to compete on the playing field of looks with a woman 20 years your junior, just as it is ridiculous to expect a 20-something to have the kind of knowledge and experience that only comes with years spent working on a job. It was great to hear it pointed out though.

Often, women are so afraid of their age working against them (and this is not an unfounded fear) that they won’t even admit how old they are. I’m not even talking about the punishing world of film or television. I’m talking about ordinary, everyday life.

Research shows that the older we get the harder it is to find a new job and this is often a result of ageism, a tendency to think older people are technologically inept or incapable of learning new skills, despite the fact that they have so much experience and knowledge to bring to any role.

Edel Coffey: I have been thinking about the value of experience since Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan announced he would be retiring

The whole issue of the value of experience is something I have been thinking about since Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan announced in April that he would be retiring in July, instead of taking up a planned secondment to Trinity College Dublin as a Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership. 

There was much mourning and rending of clothes at the idea of him leaving public service for good and taking all of that unique experience with him, built up over the years like a pearl from a grain of sand. 

The outcry struck me at the time because it is rare enough to hear someone valued for their experience, their years of hard-earned knowledge, their acquired wisdom. Usually, it’s the case that people over a certain age are escorted into their retirement with a firm hand on their elbow. 

Medicine is an obvious area where experience is especially important. I’ve experienced it in small ways in my own life. I remember when I first moved from Dublin to Galway, finding the right GP was second only to finding the right hairdresser. 

A GP was recommended to me, a kind, gentle, and wise woman in her late 50s. She took my life story, personal history, and added all of the little details together like a pointillist painter to get a clear picture of the factors influencing my health. 

She always put whatever health problem I presented her with through the filter of my individual set of circumstances, and usually came up with an insightful, holistic solution as a result. But that kind of confident insight can only come with experience. 

When she retired a few years later, all of that knowledge and experience went with her. I realised fully exactly what I had lost when I tried to find a new doctor. At one point I met a very helpful, young, positive trainee GP. We didn’t get very far, not because of any failure of ability on their part, but simply because of a lack of experience. 

And there’s not a lot you can do about that. We all have to begin somewhere. We all have to learn. We all have to practice and put in the years to gain that valuable experience. There are no shortcuts.

I’ve always prized experience, not just in professionals, but in friends too. 

I’ve always had older friends in my life and I think that’s because I’ve always known that they have so much to offer in terms of knowledge, experience, insight, and guidance. In short; they make great friends.

There’s a reason why some cultures honour their elders. We used to be one of those cultures I think, but somewhere in the middle of the Celtic Tiger we seemed to forget that knowledge and experience can’t be bought but has to be earned. 

Which is why it made me very happy to hear Maura Derrane’s sensible comments on experience. Derrane is right not to be intimidated by young people coming up behind her. They don’t have the experience that she has earned over years of working in live television. 

Besides, there will always be people younger than you. You can only be you. 

Katie Taylor is another great example of the value of experience. She was probably at her physical peak while she was still an amateur, but here she stands at the age of 35 as the current undisputed lightweight champion of the world based on talent, discipline, determination, humility, and that magic ingredient – experience.

There are lots of benefits to be gained from a culture that values experience. Perhaps if we started to value it as much as we value youth, we might all get to enjoy those benefits a little more.