One former ambassador’s new calling spreading the gospel of U3A

I was one of Garret FitzGerald’s initial recruits to Foreign Affairs when he became Minister in 1973—there was a surge of recruitment after Ireland joined the EEC—and by the time my career came to an end I had done 42 years as an Irish diplomat.

There were various entry levels to the Irish civil service back in the early 1970s and the one I did graduated from university. I was one of 29 people to get into the Foreign Affairs department that year and to put the economic situation in Ireland at the time into a bit of perspective, I was one of just three people from my university class at Trinity College to get any kind of employment in 1974.

I joined at entry level, which is third-secretary, over many years I reached first secretary and eventually Counsellor and ambassador. My first posting was in Paris and I also had time in Zambia, where I opened up the Irish office in Lusaka. I was posted in Washington DC for the last two years of Ronald Reagan and the start of George Bush the elder’s presidency—that was a very interesting time to be in the United States. Later I was Irish ambassador to Lithuania, Belarus and Finland and also Irish Consul General in San Francisco.

People might see it as a glamorous life but the constant travel—three or four years abroad, four or five years back in Iveagh House, then abroad again—can be a strain, and there’s no doubt it was a challenge for my family, especially my children who were often on the move again just as they had settled into a place and made friends. When you’re living and working abroad you’re very much like a native, so it’s a very normal kind of living existence. You use local hospitals, supermarkets, playgrounds, schools and become a become part of that society for a time.

But I enjoyed it all immensely and it was a privilege and an honour to have served my country like this. It’s been a wonderful life and I have no regrets.

Would I like to be involved in diplomacy these days, with the way the world is now—Brexit, Trump, Putin, etc.? The one thing I’ll say, and I’ve been saying this for a number of years: I was very glad I was born the day I was born and not a day later! It’s someone else’s turn now.

"Unemployment for older people"

I said I have no regrets, but I am still angry with the way retirement was forced upon me and is being forced upon many other people in Ireland.

I call mandatory retirement “unemployment for older people”. I suppose I didn’t really appreciate retirement was coming until it almost came up and bit me on the bum. The last couple of years passed by so quickly.

Coming up to 65 I was still productive and committed. I was still relatively healthy, still sane and still interested in continuing what I wanted to do. However, the system decided otherwise—the one contract I signed in my life said that I had to retire on my 65th birthday. Most countries encourage people to work longer. In Finland civil servants can work to 68 years of age. In Norway it’s even higher. Retirement is great if you actually want to retire, but not everyone wants to.

So the system as it currently is discards you arbitrarily when you’re 65. On Friday, August 14th I was in my office in Helsinki, working as Irish Ambassador to Finland. On Saturday, August 15th I turned 65. On Monday, August 17th I was back in Dublin, unpacking boxes.

The other thing is that you don’t get pension rights until you’re 66. So I discovered I had to go to the local employment agency at 65 years of age and sign on. I asked them, “Is it a requirement to do this?” They said yes; I didn’t mind, particularly, but thought it a waste of resources.

I also had to show them that I had applied for jobs in three workplaces. So I emailed six different organisations I knew (I actually got replies from a couple of them, but no jobs!)

I even volunteered to help out with public diplomacy. There are lots of things that are within the remit of diplomacy and are important but might not be urgent—such as schools talks and embassy inspections. So I offered to do that for nothing as a volunteer with all my experience behind me. A year and a half later I’m still waiting for a reply.

In Ireland we’re losing a huge amount of experience in our system because of this arbitrary rule. It’s a terrible shame that there’s so much knowledge and experience being lost. And I know from talking to former colleagues that I’m not alone in thinking this.

Bucket list

So I had to face up to it. Long before the day came I had been given good advice by a friend and colleague to write a list of things I might like to do when I retire. A long to-do list—or a bucket list you might say.

Some kind of further academic study was on the list. I was also determined to write down my memories for my family and grandchildren. I enjoy writing—it was an important part of my career. Two of my children live and work in Melbourne and I wanted to go out there to visit my grandchildren. And of course there were also a number of very important and urgent jobs to be done around the house!

I also took on a project for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. I’ve the good fortune to be the eldest grandson of one of the participants, Edward “Ted” Tuke, volunteer no.79 in the Irish Citizen Army. He wasn’t one of the famous ones but he was there and took part, at 19 years of age. He was one of the founder members of the Fintan Lawlor Pipe Band and served under Countess Markievicz with Fianna Eireann and in The College of Surgeons. He worked in Guinness’s and I discovered that Guinness have a remarkable archive, with records on 80% of their employees dating all the way back to 1759. There was a note about my grandfather, who was let go after the Rising. He had, the note said, been involved in the Sinn Féin Rebellion and had not returned to work. So, he was dismissed. Obviously, he had no choice in the matter, being a guest of His Britannic Majesty, first in Knutsford Gaol and subsequently in Frongoch!

It was good to have the time to do that research, but retirement was still a huge challenge. For the first few months it felt like a holiday but suddenly I realised it was a holiday without end.

I don’t have a problem filling my time. I’m up at 6.30 most mornings; I have busy days and I often read until late in the evening. But it’s a big challenge and I admit that I’m still a bit angry. Not with anyone in any particular way. It’s just that society seems to say that I’m not useful. I miss feeling productive. Feeling wanted and valued. That’s what I find difficult. It’s not that I can’t stay busy or interested. But my life now lacks a validation from society. People say I’m just retired, see me as a burden.

Starting a new U3A group

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In January and February of last year I was in Melbourne. My daughter is married to an Australian man and my in-laws said to me, “Have you heard of the U3A?”

I said no. So I sought it out, liked what I saw and did two courses—including one on Australian maritime history. I knew very little about that but I had an interest in boats and history, so that was right up my street.

In Australia U3A has been going for 30 years and is very strong, well established and very well integrated with the university system.

While I was away I wrote the occasional article for the Dalkey Community Council Newsletter and in one of them I mentioned that I was attending U3A and would be very interested in setting one up back home.

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In the meantime I found out that Age Action was an umbrella organisation for U3A in Ireland and I received lots of support from Sam O’Brien-Olinger there.

My piece in the Dalkey newsletter got one response from Anne Johnson, a very erudite lady who worked for the BBC during her career. She’s a grandmother now and terrific person. We met at the Tramyard in Dalkey to chat. The two of us soon became five – other good friends- and we spent the next few months talking to Sam and other U3A groups.

At the end of September 2016 we organised our first intro meeting at the Lexicon library in Dun Laoghaire. We had reserved a room big enough for 27 people and were hoping to fill it. But 90 people turned up on the day! We had to scramble around for a suitable venue and later moved to a conference room in St Joseph’s Glasthule pastoral centre.

The membership of Dun Laoghaire Dalkey Killiney U3A group is up to about 120 now. We have a committee of seven and we get on exceptionally well together and only ever take decisions by consensus. There’s never a harsh word and it seems to work beautifully.

Before we launched U3A we spent a lot of time putting together programme, and at the moment the committee is working on a programme for April through to June.

The U3A I attend in Hawthorn in Melbourne, there are 60 courses organised over the full academic term—two a day. Going forward we would hope to imitate Australian model and integrate with universities. We’re talking to UCD and we hope to talk to the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in Dun Laoghaire too. We have great ambitions for what DLDK U3A can become.