Were you part of Coláiste Mhuire's Class of 1974 in Douglas, Cork? Join their first reunion in 50 years

Former Douglas community school pupils who are organising a 50th class reunion: from left, John Turner, Frank Coughlan, Ger Power and Mick Barry with a crest of the original school Colaiste Muire, in the community school. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

It was a warm, pleasant day in Cork. Whatever drizzle was expected to move in from the west stayed clear of the deep south. It was a good start.

But the temperature in the Douglas examination hall on June 12, 1974, would more likely have been described as sticky, the first day Leaving Cert nerves edging up the mercury enough to make us all a little hot under the collar.

I have little recall of the questions set in the Pass Irish paper and I’m grateful that I can’t remember any of my answers. They can’t have been great. I came out with a big ugly D. Peig Sayers would not have been impressed. Amadán.

I recall my exam number, though. 85612. Crystal clear. Grateful of the anonymity it gave me as this tortuous process unwound into the heart of my summer.

That Leaving Cert didn’t get to define me or my life, but at the time — fast approaching 50 years ago now — we were all told often enough that it would.

When the Coláiste Mhuire Class of ’74 gathers in the one room for our reunion next year those fraught weeks in June will hardly get a look in. We’ll have better stuff to catch up on.

In all, 75,000 sat the Inter and Leaving that summer, for many the summit of their educational achievements. Or ambitions.

But patterns were beginning to shift, no small thanks to swashbuckling Minister Donogh O’Malley who introduced free secondary education in the late 1960s.

It triggered a revolution. Somewhere in the region of 75% of students find their way to third level now. It was one-in-three back then. If that.

As LP Hartley so succinctly put it, the past is a different country. If the Ireland of the 1970s was in a travel brochure, not many of us would want to visit.

Former Douglas community school pupils who are organising a 50th class reunion: from left, Ger Power, Frank Coughlan, John Turner and Mick Barry in one of the classrooms in the community school. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

The North’s violence spilled into the Republic with 33 blown to their deaths in Dublin and Monaghan a month before we sat the Leaving.

A few months later the Provos would murder 26 innocent people enjoying pints in Guildford and Birmingham.

At the same time Ireland’s economy was being routinely mismanaged. Unemployment spiralled from 6.6% in 1971 to 17.6% in 1987. Those earning over £10,350 (not a fortune) were paying a whooping 70% income tax.

A lethargic social conservatism, directed by an all-seeing Church but sustained by a conveniently complicit society, completed this complicated mosaic.

Not that the state of the nation had us Sixth Years in knots of existentialist angst. We had other things to obsess over. Like girls (though I was about as good at unlocking that mystery as I was the hieroglyphics of algebra), rock ‘n’ roll and drink — underage for much of that time.

The Cork Con disco would have been bouncing to Sparks’ ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’ and Leo Sayer’s ‘One Man Band’. But it was homeboy Rory Gallagher’s concerts at the City Hall in January — more religious pilgrimage than mere gig — which sustained us spiritually as the Leaving loomed.

David Bowie’s new album, Diamond Dogs, an overwrought but stunning slice of dystopian pop, came out in mid-May and I was right on it. ‘Rebel, Rebel’ got far more spin on my turntable than unloved Peig Sayers or the stodgy Mayor of Casterbridge.

Former Douglas community school pupil Frank Coughlan in front of the original Coláiste Mhuire. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

Not that it was all delinquent glam rock. Boys always love their kick-abouts too.

Chelsea legend Bobby Tambling had just inspired Cork Celtic to the League title, Ireland had won the Five Nations and Jimmy Barry Murphy’s Cork footballers were destined to swagger all the way to Croke Park and retain the All Ireland (spoiler alert: it didn’t happen).

Oh, and the World Cup finals from West Germany were on the telly … running in a parallel universe but at the same time as the biggest exam of our lives. God had a wicked sense of humour, even back then.

If either our Rory or total footballer Johann Cryuff were on the curriculum, a few more of us might have secured the honours necessary to unlock the gates to the charmed future our career guidance teacher and the Presentation Brothers waved in front of us like a wad of 20 quid notes.

As well as UCC and the brand new RTC, more than a few enrolled at the ‘University of Nepotism’, an institution with deeper roots in Cork than even the famous quad out on the Western Road.

Others again were scattered to the four winds, becoming part of what wasn’t yet fashionably referred to as the diaspora.

Former Douglas community school pupils who are organising a 50th class reunion from left: Frank Coughlan, Ger Power, John Turner and Mick Barry in front of the original school Colaiste Muire, on the grounds of the community school. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

But everyone in the Class of ’74 has their own story and all of us who gather for the 50th will have found their way there from a different place and having negotiated varying routes.

There will have been cul-de-sacs and dead-ends en route too, because life is a stickler for that sort of thing.

Sadly, we have lost more than a few along the way. Ruthless common sense would suggest it could not be otherwise. But to hear those names, put faces on them, and sometimes even match them to voices, stirred something in us. We will remember them on the night.

What makes this coming together so special is that it never struck us to reclaim the past before now. Not a moment too soon for sure, but certainly not too late.

Unlike a 10th or 20th reunion, periods in life when some might feel the need to show off the shiny baubles of their personal or professional achievements, this is less fraught.

We’ll just be happy to be there. Break bread. Share a glass. Toast absent classmates. Giggle like teenagers at the genius of our adolescent stupidities and embarrassing vanities.

Pat Barry, (3rd right) current principal and teacher Cian O'Mahony (3rd left) with former Douglas community school pupils who are organising a 50th class reunion from left, Mick Barry, Frank Coughlan, John Turner and Ger Power. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

We’ll have something else to mark too. Our class was the final year to graduate from Coláiste Mhuire. It became Douglas Community School soon afterwards, so the college will also be celebrating its own half century. The rebranding was no reflection on us. Seemingly.

There’s a suggestion we might even invite our teachers, though even the youngest of them would have a good few years on us. We all have at least one teacher our sense of the curious might be tempted to pluck from the past. Not sure that the sentiment would be reciprocated.

There were 80 and a few more in the Class of ’74 and we’ve rounded up more than a quorum already. But a half century is made up of long tracks of weathered footprints emerging from countless directions. Retracing them is daunting.

We haven’t picked our precise reunion date yet. We’re still doing the detective work. But we’re getting there. Halfway or thereabouts.

This might help nudge someone in our direction. Then someone else.

One thing is for sure. We will need name tags on the night. 50 years does a lot to a man’s worry lines and waistline. Not to mention his hair.

I had plenty of that in 1974. Then it was gone. Trauma, most probably. Personally, I blame Peig Sayers.

• For further information on the Coláiste Mhuire Class of ‘74 Reunion at: [e-mail]
• Check www.dcscork.ie for updates - and information on DCS’s upcoming 50th celebrations.