Bertie could learn from the events which led to Jack Lynch’s unseating

THERE was much discussion in recent weeks about the level of participation in science subjects for the Leaving Certificate.

Only 7,000 students took physics, but 20,000 took biology. Yet only 11,000 took history and it has attracted little attention.

Even students who would be interested in history won’t touch it, because the course is considered so detailed that it takes up so much time that other subjects suffer. I did not take history for the Leaving Certificate, because in 1963 our course concentrated on the period of St Patrick. It was more like mythology than history, as it had no relevance to modern life.