'I applied...and I got a place!': Cork woman goes back to college - at age 81!

Take a burning passion for Irish folklore. Add a well-used camper van and a love of learning, and there’s really only one thing left to do.

Annette Donoghue did it.

At the age of 81, she returned to college - to learn more about Irish culture and heritage.

As of last month, the octogenarian is one of 26 students on the demanding, full-time Level Five certificate programme in Cultural and Heritage Studies at the Cork College of Further Education and Training.

Students on the programme range from teenagers to people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s – and, of course, Annette, who turned 81 a few months before she started college last month.

The retired special needs teacher, a native of Drinagh in West Cork, has always been fascinated by the culture and heritage of this land.

Over the decades, Annette, now a grandmother-of-two, has travelled coast to coast and everywhere in between, visiting iconic sites such as the Giants’ Causeway, the Burren, Croagh Patrick, Achill Island, and the Church of the Little Ark of Kilbaha in Co. Clare.

But she decided she needed to know more – and, much to the surprise and delight of its administrators, she contacted the Cork College of FET.

Shane Lehane, a folklorist and lecturer in Cultural and Heritage Studies at the college’s Tramore Road campus, explains: “Our system was only set up to accommodate people born from 1950 because nobody imagined anyone over the age of 75 would ever apply for a course – and then along came Annette!”

“We were delighted to help her. She is an inspiration and an example to everyone. I am so honoured to have someone like her on my course!

“She has her camper van and travels the country in it, and wants to know everything she can about Irish culture and heritage,” added Shane, who is also author of the newly published book Old Ways To New Days, and a part-time lecturer in the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, UCC.

The one-year course is no cake-walk, he adds.

“It’s a serious course covering archaeology, history, folklore, and the arts. I call it bootcamp for university,” says Shane.

It all began last February when Annette, a retired teacher, attended a talk by Shane about one of Ireland’s most famous saints, St Brigid.

“I was blown away by the lecture,” she recalls. “Shane has a great way of explaining things; he just grips us with his knowledge of folklore and country customs and beliefs.

“At the end of the talk, he mentioned that there was a full-time course coming up in the next academic year and I applied and got a place.”

Annette is thoroughly enjoying herself:

“I attend lectures at the college on Tramore Road four days a week. One day a week we go out on field trips – our next trip is to West Cork to visit several sites including the Drombeg Stone circle.

“All my life I was attracted by the outdoors – I love nature, and walking, the hills and the lakes. My camper van is my second home!”

“My first trip every year is to the Burren. It has a unique limestone landscape and is full of rocks, stone formations and ring forts.

“The Burren is a lunar landscape with lots of unusual plants such as bloody cranesbill, orchids, blue gentians, catspaw, lichens, and mosses.

“There are 600 different types of plants in the Burren and every year, in May, I head off with a friend to the Burren to walk the greenways and see the plants and the rock formations.”

Her college studies present one significant challenge, she admits: “I need to learn how to use IT properly!

“I never used it, but in fairness the college offers great help in getting to know how to use it.

“There is tuition available and I’m availing of it, but I find it a bit difficult.

“I think my brain is not wired that way, but I am making progress – slow progress but it is progress.

“When you’re doing something you really enjoy, it’s easier,” Annette says, adding that her younger classmates are always willing to help her out.

No surprise there! It’s just karma, because, as Shane reveals, Annette accommodates some fellow students who faced lengthy commutes to class after they were unable to find affordable accommodation in the city.

“She is a great human being, an absolutely topper,” he declares.

But that’s not all there is to Annette Donoghue.

She is currently writing a book which she hopes to complete before Christmas. It’s a memoir about growing up on a small farm in West Cork and spans several decades, from 1944 to the present day.

“The book looks at old-style farming pre-electricity; the small farm, with horses and hens and pigs and turkeys, and then the arrival of electricity,” she explains.

“I talk about Drinagh Co-Op and its history. It had a corn mill, a flax mill and it also produced butter that was renowned for its quality throughout Ireland and exported abroad.”

And, as if all of that isn’t enough to be getting on with, Annette is already forming plans to celebrate her 82nd birthday:

“I’m planning to go on a cruise next year. It has to be a cruise with a lot of country dancing involved.

“I’m not too worried where the ship will be headed; I’m happy just so long as there’s lots and lots of country dancing on board!”