other Book
October 15, 2008 · No Comments
I picked up an autobiography by Dervla Murphy, the Irish world-the-world cyclist and I am hooked! I don’t particularly want to go out today.
Though I haven’t quite finished it yet, I am glued to her tales of her Irish parents and Convent life, and all the religious doctrine and the cattiness of the kids. I also loved her tales about her love of books. The fact that her teacher told her parents that she ‘didn’t fit in’ and her mother more or less said, afterwards, ‘Thank God for that’.
I’m quite interested how she started to want to travel.
Having had a similar childhood, in the sense, that I went to a Convent, I could relate to all the stuff she went on about. However, her convent was much tougher than mine. I was quite gobsmacked that her College didn’t allow her to take English books along. All this clearly was ‘political’. I could understand that but I think education is learning about different cultures and ways of thinking.
When I was younger, I used to enjoy french books, even though I couldn’t understand all of it. I enjoyed the style and types of books they had and the stories. The Black Stallion was one of them. If I could read Gaelic, then I would read those! To be forced to read only certain types of books is ridiculous, and smacks of brain washing, something I think the schools system is riddled with!
Another thing she said was that the atmosphere didn’t encourage ‘asking questions’. Like mine too. You were supposed to ‘accept it’.
My own sheltered schooling encouraged me to travel and learn more about life. Hence I travelled to Northern Ireland and Eire to see for myself what it was like rather than a) nothing being taught at school about it b) the media brain washing you. The BBC is supposed to be balanced, but it is not.
So, this book is very inspiring and I look forward to reading the rest of her entertaining stories.
