Maynooth University in its infancy 1969-1973 September 1969. The College and I were smack in the middle of a Who-am-I? What-am-I? Why-am-I? Where am I going? crisis. Neither of us was coping too well.Maynooth went through a metamorphosis just when I was thinking I wanted to 'be a teacher'. Living in the vicinity made Maynooth, a University in its infancy grafted onto one of the most influential Ecclesiastical Institutions in Europe, the most logical choice. I could commute (read cycle) That I had never been beyond the gates of Maynooth College was of little importance. I had been at boarding school, hadn't I? Nuns or priests, what's the difference? Little did I know!'Average' describes the then seventeen-year-old me. Average build, looks, ambition, understanding, intelligence, personality.‘Awesome’ describes everyone else. Awesomely learned, rich, good-looking, world-wise, popular, level-headed, beautiful.(Was I the only one who didn't know that Va Pensiero from Nabucco that echoed from the College Chapel that first Christmas was written by one Giuseppe Verdi? Was I the only one who could barely scrape together enough for a daily ration of soup when everyone else's pockets were bulging with fivers? … who hadn't read 'Les Fleurs du Mal' in the original? … who blushed on arriving late to lectures...)‘Aloof’ describes Maynooth. Aloof towards what I didn't realise then was, for many, a grudgingly accepted alternative to the gradual decline of Maynooth as a Seat of Learning and Clout. Average Me was blissfully unaware that I was part of the Great Experiment To Save Maynooth.Post-Vatican-Two Maynooth would meet the Twentieth Century in the hope that its foundations were sufficiently solid to withstand the inevitably negative vibes. The impact was traumatic. With students at the barricades, the Beatles strutting their stuff, Mary Quant decreeing that women should flaunt their assets, poor Maynooth stood no chance. The wind of change blowing over The Emerald Isle was bringing draughts to every nook and cranny of The College.Much as those with clout tried to filter it, the contamination oozed in. Men, garbed in the robes of two centuries of saintliness, gazed down from portraits on Long Corridor in amused but impotent sympathy, as their latter-day counterparts paced the same floors and discussed tactics as they themselves had done in times past. Big issues then: Napoleon... World Wars... Home Rule... Parnell... 1916... Maynooth had witnessed them all. But now, all was changed, utterly changed.Of course we young women were blissfully unaware of all this hand wringing in the upper chambers. Our problems on day one in Maynooth were time-tables, libraries, locations, combinations, admissions, orientations, introductions, tuitions. Our Problem on day two was Genesis! Forget about Adam and Eve and The Apple if you want to illustrate the essence of self-denial and mortification of the Spirit. Maynooth in its infancy as a University for a first-year, female 'extern' student fresh out of five years of convent life à la Edna O' Brien, ('the lot of you lusting for the gardener' was how one good Sister put it!) is what you need to illustrate the point.The physical, psychological, moral, spiritual, you name it, effects of the female 'externs' (male externs were less threatening) on the 'clerics' were studied in depth. The opposite not at all. And there is no comparison between the enormity of the discrepancy. I mean, take a bunch of mostly unfledged, female youth, throw them in among the most charming, suave, specimen of manhood they’d ever laid eyes on and tell them to pretend they didn't exist! Picture us, wading in a pool, no, up to our necks in an ocean of masculinity, from the sporty, twenty laps before breakfast types, the brawny rugby player, the alluring artist, the better-than-Bob-Dylan guitar-strumming hobos, all in black gowns making their rounds and all out of bounds! It couldn't work!For an 18-21 year old, in the early 1970's at least, coping with the gut-guilt feeling of being infatuated with a fellow student whom one believed to be 'The Lord's Anointed' was no small matter. Conscience was a big word then. We were led to believe, and, in our gullibility, often did so, that we were a source of temptation, we were the evil to be avoided, they were the poor victims to be condoned: more sinned against than sinning! Much as we wanted to abide by the stream of rules and regulations regarding coercing with the Chosen Ones, we were rowing helplessly against the biological current, fighting a war without weapons, will or conviction and finding that the enemy thoroughly enjoyed the conniving!In general, Maynooth was tolerant to the new breed of student but, depending on the Professor of the day, one was warmly accepted, resented, fussed over, ignored and very gradually treated as a student. I try to bear in mind that the whole experience of dealing with non-clerical students was as foreign to many of the Professors themselves as being part of an experimental minority was for us.Accepting the limits within Maynooth College itself was sometimes funny, sometimes annoying. Sometimes these limits were downright ridiculous. 'Out of bounds' was synonymous with 'no female externs welcome in this area'. If it wasn't a library, a lecture hall, a lab, a canteen, a reading room or a ladies loo, it was o.o.b. But Maynooth is big and, curiosity, thy name is woman.Student rooms, reading rooms, ghost rooms, common rooms, games rooms, profs' rooms, playing fields, corridors, all o.o.b. all so ordinary when discovered!In spite of everything, the mating games were played in Maynooth too. We could catalogue them.Orthodox heterosexual relations (consenting externs ) went unnoticed. Unorthodox liaisons (female extern and male cleric about to 'cut' or leave the seminary) raised eyebrows. While female extern and male cleric about to be ordained or with no intention of 'cutting' were severely frowned upon. Female extern and ordained priest merited long discussions. Female religious - male anything were food for serious soul searching. All other liaisons were considered scandalous. As nature would have it, the more unreachable the star the more we desire it and Maynooth was a whole solar system out of reach. The nun, priest or clerical student were all fatally attractive until they tossed aside the garb. Once they did, they inevitably lost much of their charm and on their first days circulating as 'lay people' they reminded one of the single shorn sheep which stands out from the flock for a day or two and is then swallowed up into anonymity. Theirs was often the unhappy lot of the soldier, the sailor, the officer. The heart of the party when in full uniform, not a glance when the braids and medals are removed. All alone in his plight and no guidance in sight to help this other poor unfortunate over a hurdle that only Maynooth could erect. Maynooth as a University-cum-Seminary was a brave decision and one with far reaching effects. Like any other institution, Maynooth is its people. Maynooth as part of my life is like that well-intentioned, highly qualified parent to whom we feel proud to belong and from whom we crave a caress, that distracted parent vaguely aware that I'm groping with my puny personal problems but, for the most part, totally engrossed in its own massive ones. How one wished one counted! Maynooth did open its gates but only very rarely did those who entered find any help as they floundered through the maze that was inside, a maze that many did not expect to find nor had they the skills to cope with it The protective environment that was Maynooth should have contributed to a smoother passage from adolescence to adulthood. I don't know that it did. It offered many students the continuation of a life as artificial and unbalanced as the previous years had been.The 'extern' or lay student entered Maynooth as a normal healthy young adult with no notion that an indirect and subtle form of sexual discrimination would be imposed on him/her in order to facilitate and protect the choices already made or in the process of being made by others. The choice of another in embracing celibacy and the implications of this choice must be respected at all times. The burden of celibacy can be borne only by those who opt to bear it. There exists an expectation of understanding and an implicit 'hands off' imposition on the ordinary citizen who has dealings with those who decide to consecrate their lives but nothing more. If Maynooth is to be a microcosm of reality and if it is to be coherent in respecting the integrity of the entire College community that is all it can ask both of its clerical and its lay students.
Maynooth University in its infancy
Maynooth University in its infancy 1969-1973 September 1969. The College and I were smack in the middle of a Who-am-I? What-am-I? Why-am-I? Where am I going? crisis. Neither of us was coping too well.Maynooth went through a metamorphosis just when I was thinking I wanted to 'be a teacher'. Living in the vicinity made Maynooth, a University in its infancy grafted onto one of the most influential Ecclesiastical Institutions in Europe, the most logical choice. I could commute (read cycle) That I had never been beyond the gates of Maynooth College was of little importance. I had been at boarding school, hadn't I? Nuns or priests, what's the difference? Little did I know!'Average' describes the then seventeen-year-old me. Average build, looks, ambition, understanding, intelligence, personality.‘Awesome’ describes everyone else. Awesomely learned, rich, good-looking, world-wise, popular, level-headed, beautiful.(Was I the only one who didn't know that Va Pensiero from Nabucco that echoed from the College Chapel that first Christmas was written by one Giuseppe Verdi? Was I the only one who could barely scrape together enough for a daily ration of soup when everyone else's pockets were bulging with fivers? … who hadn't read 'Les Fleurs du Mal' in the original? … who blushed on arriving late to lectures...)‘Aloof’ describes Maynooth. Aloof towards what I didn't realise then was, for many, a grudgingly accepted alternative to the gradual decline of Maynooth as a Seat of Learning and Clout. Average Me was blissfully unaware that I was part of the Great Experiment To Save Maynooth.Post-Vatican-Two Maynooth would meet the Twentieth Century in the hope that its foundations were sufficiently solid to withstand the inevitably negative vibes. The impact was traumatic. With students at the barricades, the Beatles strutting their stuff, Mary Quant decreeing that women should flaunt their assets, poor Maynooth stood no chance. The wind of change blowing over The Emerald Isle was bringing draughts to every nook and cranny of The College.Much as those with clout tried to filter it, the contamination oozed in. Men, garbed in the robes of two centuries of saintliness, gazed down from portraits on Long Corridor in amused but impotent sympathy, as their latter-day counterparts paced the same floors and discussed tactics as they themselves had done in times past. Big issues then: Napoleon... World Wars... Home Rule... Parnell... 1916... Maynooth had witnessed them all. But now, all was changed, utterly changed.Of course we young women were blissfully unaware of all this hand wringing in the upper chambers. Our problems on day one in Maynooth were time-tables, libraries, locations, combinations, admissions, orientations, introductions, tuitions. Our Problem on day two was Genesis! Forget about Adam and Eve and The Apple if you want to illustrate the essence of self-denial and mortification of the Spirit. Maynooth in its infancy as a University for a first-year, female 'extern' student fresh out of five years of convent life à la Edna O' Brien, ('the lot of you lusting for the gardener' was how one good Sister put it!) is what you need to illustrate the point.The physical, psychological, moral, spiritual, you name it, effects of the female 'externs' (male externs were less threatening) on the 'clerics' were studied in depth. The opposite not at all. And there is no comparison between the enormity of the discrepancy. I mean, take a bunch of mostly unfledged, female youth, throw them in among the most charming, suave, specimen of manhood they’d ever laid eyes on and tell them to pretend they didn't exist! Picture us, wading in a pool, no, up to our necks in an ocean of masculinity, from the sporty, twenty laps before breakfast types, the brawny rugby player, the alluring artist, the better-than-Bob-Dylan guitar-strumming hobos, all in black gowns making their rounds and all out of bounds! It couldn't work!For an 18-21 year old, in the early 1970's at least, coping with the gut-guilt feeling of being infatuated with a fellow student whom one believed to be 'The Lord's Anointed' was no small matter. Conscience was a big word then. We were led to believe, and, in our gullibility, often did so, that we were a source of temptation, we were the evil to be avoided, they were the poor victims to be condoned: more sinned against than sinning! Much as we wanted to abide by the stream of rules and regulations regarding coercing with the Chosen Ones, we were rowing helplessly against the biological current, fighting a war without weapons, will or conviction and finding that the enemy thoroughly enjoyed the conniving!In general, Maynooth was tolerant to the new breed of student but, depending on the Professor of the day, one was warmly accepted, resented, fussed over, ignored and very gradually treated as a student. I try to bear in mind that the whole experience of dealing with non-clerical students was as foreign to many of the Professors themselves as being part of an experimental minority was for us.Accepting the limits within Maynooth College itself was sometimes funny, sometimes annoying. Sometimes these limits were downright ridiculous. 'Out of bounds' was synonymous with 'no female externs welcome in this area'. If it wasn't a library, a lecture hall, a lab, a canteen, a reading room or a ladies loo, it was o.o.b. But Maynooth is big and, curiosity, thy name is woman.Student rooms, reading rooms, ghost rooms, common rooms, games rooms, profs' rooms, playing fields, corridors, all o.o.b. all so ordinary when discovered!In spite of everything, the mating games were played in Maynooth too. We could catalogue them.Orthodox heterosexual relations (consenting externs ) went unnoticed. Unorthodox liaisons (female extern and male cleric about to 'cut' or leave the seminary) raised eyebrows. While female extern and male cleric about to be ordained or with no intention of 'cutting' were severely frowned upon. Female extern and ordained priest merited long discussions. Female religious - male anything were food for serious soul searching. All other liaisons were considered scandalous. As nature would have it, the more unreachable the star the more we desire it and Maynooth was a whole solar system out of reach. The nun, priest or clerical student were all fatally attractive until they tossed aside the garb. Once they did, they inevitably lost much of their charm and on their first days circulating as 'lay people' they reminded one of the single shorn sheep which stands out from the flock for a day or two and is then swallowed up into anonymity. Theirs was often the unhappy lot of the soldier, the sailor, the officer. The heart of the party when in full uniform, not a glance when the braids and medals are removed. All alone in his plight and no guidance in sight to help this other poor unfortunate over a hurdle that only Maynooth could erect. Maynooth as a University-cum-Seminary was a brave decision and one with far reaching effects. Like any other institution, Maynooth is its people. Maynooth as part of my life is like that well-intentioned, highly qualified parent to whom we feel proud to belong and from whom we crave a caress, that distracted parent vaguely aware that I'm groping with my puny personal problems but, for the most part, totally engrossed in its own massive ones. How one wished one counted! Maynooth did open its gates but only very rarely did those who entered find any help as they floundered through the maze that was inside, a maze that many did not expect to find nor had they the skills to cope with it The protective environment that was Maynooth should have contributed to a smoother passage from adolescence to adulthood. I don't know that it did. It offered many students the continuation of a life as artificial and unbalanced as the previous years had been.The 'extern' or lay student entered Maynooth as a normal healthy young adult with no notion that an indirect and subtle form of sexual discrimination would be imposed on him/her in order to facilitate and protect the choices already made or in the process of being made by others. The choice of another in embracing celibacy and the implications of this choice must be respected at all times. The burden of celibacy can be borne only by those who opt to bear it. There exists an expectation of understanding and an implicit 'hands off' imposition on the ordinary citizen who has dealings with those who decide to consecrate their lives but nothing more. If Maynooth is to be a microcosm of reality and if it is to be coherent in respecting the integrity of the entire College community that is all it can ask both of its clerical and its lay students.