Cork, and an old friend, re-visited

I was back in Cork last Thursday and Friday to deliver the first day of five a day Business Systems Analysis module to a group of 13 students on the NCI Diploma in Business Analysis and Consultancy. The location was Jurys Hotel - we had a small room for the class which was a bit stuffy and warm. However, thanks to the students, we "mucked in" and got through the day's material. I was satisfied at the end that all were happy with the day's proceedings.

Before going down to Cork I got in contact with an old friend from my Trinity days - Jim O'Callaghan (Jim - if you're reading this, it was great to see you again - you haven't changed a bit!). Jim was one of the first people I became friends with in Trinity. As I recall, we met in College Park in training for the Gaelic football club - most likely in the first week or two of our time in college (this was October 1978). We had many a good time over the next six years and were very familiar with the watering holes around the city centre - especially the Lincoln Inn and the Pavilion Bar.

We went to Jacques Restaurant for a very nice steak dinner - this was after rejecting Jim's suggestion that we go to a vegetarian restaurant close to my hotel. We have only met once (we estimated in 2000 or 2001) for a short lunch in Dublin since the late 1980's, so we had a lot to catch up on. After dinner, we adjourned to the nearby Counihan's Bar where I had a few nice pints of Murphy's ("When in Cork.......!"). We talked about our college days, football, mutual friends, and what we had been doing since graduation. Jim has his own successful company - O'Callaghan Moran & Associates (OCM), which provides provides environmental consulting services to the public and private sector. The main difference between our conversation on Thursday night, and those of our College days was kids - we didn't have any then!

I'll be down in Cork again at the end of March and the end of April - we promised to stay in touch.

In class the next day, I discovered one of my students had worked for Jim - small world!