Spring 2003 - University College Cork

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THE COLLEGE COURIER SPRING 2 003 Features Features THE COLLE GE COURIER S PRING 2003 Relocating To Ireland Even after 28 years in Australia and New Zealand, volcanologist, Professor John Gamble, the new head of the Geology Department at University College Cork, is no stranger to this part of Ireland. Deep field camp in Central Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica. Volcano in background is 10,000' Mount Waesche, first climbed by this field party After graduating from the Queen’s University of Belfast in 1970, he came south to work for the eminent consulting geologist, John Jackson, at the time, one of the few Irish consulting geologists, and found himself travelling in Cork, Waterford and Kerry for six months, “looking for a particular type of quarry stone.” As a young geologist, it was an experience he enjoyed immensely. A PhD in Queen’s in 1973 was followed by a lectureship at Newcastle University in New South Wales where he remained until 1980 before moving to the School of Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Dr Ian Meighan, his former supervisor at Queen’s, (which awarded him a DSc in 2000) had been urging him for some time to return to this side of the world, and in October 2001, he found himself in Cork attending interviews for the UCC post. With three grown-up children, two daughters, Fiona (26) Mary (20) and son, Tom (24) Professor Gamble and his wife, Frances, felt they had reached a point in their lives “where it was a good time to make a move.” Since last September, when they relocated to Cork, the Gambles have been experiencing the vagaries and vicissitudes of house-hunting in Ireland at first hand. For one thing, they have discovered that the price of property here is up to four times higher than in New Zealand! Professor Gamble says he is looking forward to the challenge of his new post and to making “a distinctive contribution” to the Department of Geology. “This is a very good Department with very good staff and I have been working with them to introduce changes to the structure of the courses, to make them more relevant in the 21st century. These decisions have been reached by discussion and consensus. The new course changes will take effect in the next academic year and there will be more to come. Apart from the fact that UCC’s offer was attractive, I was well aware of the good teaching record in the Department, probably one of the best in Science at UCC, and of the strong tradition of field work in the UCC curriculum,” he said. And that tradition will continue. Already, first year Geology students have been on a field trip to County Antrim, Professor Gamble’s native place, not he insists, because he was born there, but because that is where students must go in Ireland if they want to study rocks ranging from less than one million to more than six hundred million years of age. “Not until you have been away and then come back to it again, do you realise just how incredibly diverse the array of geology in Antrim is. Having been lucky enough to have worked in interesting places such as central Australia where temperatures could reach plus 40 degrees, to Antarctica where they might reach 40 degrees below, I have always been interested in field work, since my own first-year days in Queen’s when we also visited Antrim, as UCC students have often done before,” he added. A keen rugby follower - “You would have to be, living in Australia and New Zealand”- Professor Gamble is now a confirmed UCC supporter. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and has conducted extensive research on the volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate as well as the Pacific Rim. Recently, he delivered the guest lecture to the Irish Geological Association, “Volcanism on the Antarctic Plate” and yes, there are active volcanoes in Antarctica!. His wife, Frances, was IT specialist at the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research. His daughter, Fiona, is now in London “as part of what antipodeans call their OE – overseas experience,” Mary is studying at Otago University, Dunedin, and Tom is working in Wellington. Last year, the family came together at the home of Professor Gamble’s parents in Antrim to celebrate Christmas. 6 7
THE COL LEGE COURIER SPRING 2003 Features Features THE COLLEGE COURI ER S PRING 20 03 Road To Success Denis Staunton (centre front) Assistant Director, Centre for Adult Continuing Education with members of the Ballyhoura Transport Group, back row, l-r: Ben O’Sullivan, Sean O’Laoithe and Tom Kearney , Front row, l-r: Brenda Savage and Bernie Car roll Marathon Man! Adult Education is about personal development, perspective transform a t i o n and community empowerment. The Centre for Adult Continuing Education p rovides collaborative educational opportunities on an outreach basis to facilitate community groups achieve this aim. One such initiative is curre n t l y helping to shape national policy. Dr Pat Cronin, recently retired from Ancient Classics, took part in the 20th Athens Classic Marathon in November 2002 as part of fund-raising efforts for the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens. He sent in the following account of the event and of his participation. Dr Pat Cronin, Ancient Classics, taking part in the Athens Classic Marathon to raise funds for the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens The Ballyhoura Transport Group is leading the way in Ireland in alleviating the hardship of people living in rural areas, by providing a weekly bus service to and from Charleville for people who do not have access to any other form of transport. This innovative idea started when a group of five committed voluntary community activists participated in a Certificate in Community Development organised by the Centre for Adult Continuing Education, UCC in 1996. As part of the certificate programme participants were required to complete a group project, which involved identifying an unmet need in their community and drawing up a practical plan of action. Five members of the group identified the lack of transport as a major difficulty for people living in rural communities. The group carried out an extensive survey of the needs. The survey highlighted the problems facing people in rural areas such as depopulation, closure of shops, post-offices, creameries, the centralisation of essential services, the absence of public transport leading to the growing isolation of people living in these areas. On completion of the Certificate programme the transport group stayed together and successfully lobbied Ballyhoura Development Ltd who approved the scheme with leader funding and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs agreed that those holding free travel passes may avail of the weekly service. The group engaged in extensive consultation with local residents and designed two routes, initially with two communities and later with a third, namely, Granagh, Athlacca and Effin. The group also recruited the services of two local private bus operators. The scheme was at the time a first for Ireland. To date this project has proved to be an outstanding success and is now entering its seventh year, and being considered as a possible model for a national rural transport scheme in Ireland. The Ballyhoura Transport Group has over the past few years consulted with other similar isolated communities to extend the service. This simple solution to transport problems has acted as the stimulus to other community groups throughout Ireland to develop corresponding initiatives in rural areas. This scheme has received extensive local and national publicity for its simplicity and creativity. For instance, Kathryn Holmquist in The Irish Times praised the project as a prime example of how local communities can bring about radical and important changes in peoples lives. She sees this as an example of local people teaching the “bureaucrats in Dublin” how things at a local level should be done. She entitled the article “Craic is ninety on the Effin bus”. Seven years later the original five students are still together. They are understandably proud of their achievement, and are the first to recognise that it all started by joining the UCC Adult Education programme. In the intervening years they have seen the project grow, witnessed how it has made such an impact on so many people and experienced a huge sense of personal confidence in their community work skills, such as negotiating with Government Departments, working as part of a group, speaking in public and advocating for change in the interests of rural communities. The 20th Athens Classic Marathon took place on 3 November 2002, beginning in the modern village of Marathon and ending in the splendid Panathenaikon-Kallimarmaro Stadium. Though I had participated in four previous Marathon races elsewhere, the last in Dublin in 1986, a long cherished dream had been to run in “the real Marathon” and thus to share in the experience of Pheidippides, who brought to Athens the news of victory over the Persians in 490 BC, and of his fellow countryman, Spyros Louis, who in 1896 ran over this same course and brought victory to Greece in the first Olympic Games of the modern era. During October last I had been doing some folklore field-work in the regions of Eresos on Lesbos and of Galaxidi on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth: in both regions there were excellent stretches of road on which I was able to do those 20-mile runs that are an essential part of preparation for a Marathon. At Eresos I had the good fortune of getting to know Athanasios Spyromitros, the young teacher of Physical Education in the local school, appropriately dedicated to the memory of the village’s famous son, Theophrastus: Athanasios was excited both by my academic research and by my physical training. Back in Athens, the day before the race, I received a long telephone call from him advising me on how to distribute my energy over what he described as “one of the toughest courses in the world”. My expectations for the Marathon itself were not disappointed. It was quite thrilling to be one of the large field of runners from all over the world who came under starter’s orders at 8.30am, as the sun was rising above the east coast of Attica. By the time I had reached half-way the sun was high in the sky and the Attic landscape, dominated by Pentelicon on our right, was displayed in all its glory. For the first 20 kilometers the course followed the flattish road along the coast as far as the junction for Rafina (18 km); then swung inland and upwards through Pallini and Stavros and, as it climbed, began to take some toll on my energy; relief came, however, before Halandri (35 km), where the gentle descent to Athens began. From a host of wonderful memories, I especially like to recall the moment I passed the burial mound of the 192 Athenian heroes; the encouraging words, kalo paidi, which I received from an old man standing on the footpath at Pikermi (having just celebrated my 65th birthday, I was of course delighted to be called “a good lad”); the theme-music of the film Chariots of Fire being played on loudspeakers as we passed through Nea Makri, and the celebratory olive branch handed to me by Barbara McConnell- Zotou of the Irish Embassy as I was about to enter the stadium. It was very gratifying to be able to dedicate my run to the fund-raising of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens (IIHSA), and I wish to re c o rd my deep gratitude to the many kind supporters who s p o n s o red me, both in Ireland and in Gre e c e , and to my secretaries Anita and Eleni (she was in the stadium to welcome me home), who most efficiently organized the sponsorship. 8 9
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Spring 2003 - University College Cork

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