I have recently gained work as a cub reporter on my local newspaper ‘New Four’. In my new career, I have been greatly inspired by my literary hero, Ernest Hemingway.

This year is the centenary of Hemingway’s birth. If I could give one piece of advice this Christmas, I would whole-heartedly recommend the works of Ernest Hemingway to those who have a keen interest in reading, or if you are about to buy books for the first time.

His books make great presents for a friend or a relative and are suitable for teenagers right through to elderly folk.

Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Chicago. His father was a doctor, and it was assumed that the young Ernest would take up this or some other suitable profession.

In 1917, aged 18 years, he joined the Kansas ‘Daily City Star’ as a young reporter. He then joined the Ambulance Brigade in Italy the following year and was twice decorated for bravery. He was also badly wounded.

Returning to journalism at the end of the first World War, he reported on the Greek-Turkish conflict from 1921 to 1922. He then left his job as a reporter to concentrate on writing novels the following year.

He married the first of his four wives in 1921 and moved to Paris to pursue his literary career, where he met the influential American poet, Ezra Pound and the writer Gertrude Stein.

They helped in the formation of his writing style. He wrote in a deceptively easy and direct way.
I remember the interviewer, Michael Parkinson saying how, when he was starting out as a reporter on his local paper in Barnsley, all the young journalists tried to copy Hemingway’s simple style of writing.

It was often described as being almost metallic, especially when writing about war and death. He also avidly pursued two other great passions during his lifetime, big game hunting and deep-sea fishing.

My own favourite Hemingway works are ‘A Farewell to Arms’, ‘The Snows of Kilamanjaro’, which is a collection of short stories, perhaps the best and most skilfully crafted in this genre, ‘For whom the Bell Tolls’ and the novel I like most, ‘The Sun Also Rises’. Ernest Hemingway, pictured at the height of his fame.

The demands of a good education are at the core of personal development. Towards this goal the “Parents in Education” programme recently saw its first graduates from our area in the library of the R.D.S in Ballsbridge.

The graduates were made up of mothers from Ringsend, Baggot St and City Quay. Their main concern in taking the weekly grind of further study and group meetings is to give their children more support in their own school work and development. This is in keeping with the home as being the main focal point of a childs education. The course went on for twenty weeks with lectures, project work and attendance at a seminar on “Problems associated with growing up”. By participating in the course the parents themselves learn an awful lot about their own hidden talents.

The Certificate course is run by the National College of Ireland in Ranelagh and promotes the development of both parent and child. The spirit of camaraderie and goodwill was very much in evidence at the post graduation celebrations. That was even before they got to the Teachers Club for the real knees up! It is amazing how one milestone of achievement can ignite enthusiasm for further academic efforts. All the group hoped to go on to further study.

Special mention for the course facilitators, Maura Lane who has since moved from Ringsend Girls School to Ashbourne and Mary Weekes who looked after the Baggot St. and City Quay group. Ann Gibbons has taken over from Maura in Ringsend and is getting another group ready for graduation next year. Now, I only have one small question “What about a course for the fathers?”

Above: The ‘Parents in Education’ class from Ringsend Girls’ School.
Below: The ‘Parents in Education’ class from Baggot Street and City Quay schools.