Mon was in a league of its own

What could best be described as a wave of molten outrage flowed down out of the northside of Cork last week with the news that the North Monastery primary school is to close.

I cannot pretend not to have a dog in this particular fight. Last year the Mon asked me up to a ceremony which entailed saying a few words, and I told the assorted 10-year-olds and such that they were going to the finest school in the world, a fact which would impress itself upon them in future life when matters such as the Xbox would recede in importance.

The reason for that is simple. The Mon equipped generations of boys with the attitude to downface Alexander, a line of Theo Dorgan’s — another past pupil — which I am fond of quoting.