Tom Rigney (b. 1942), former head of Business Studies Department and head of School (part 1)

Cloyne is the birthplace of Tom Rigney, where his father was a blacksmith and small farmer. A neighbour of the family was the brilliant hurling champion, Christy Ring. Tom Rigney always had great ambition to succeed, and having left school at 14 years of age he began to work in retail sales, and attended night school to study business studies. Later he would board the bus to travel to Cork to attend night school at the School of Commerce. On being awarded his Business Studies Certificate, he became Financial Controller at Abernathy Ltd, a motor company in Castlemartyr. He also taught night classes at the School of Commerce during 1968–1969 and was then appointed grade 3 lecturer at Waterford RTC. He remained there for ten years, and recalls many happy memories of his life in Waterford. In late 1983 he was appointed Assistant Head of Department of Business Studies at Cork RTC, and simultaneously was appointed part time tutor in accountancy at UCC. In the latter section of the recording he describes the circumstances in which he got permission to record Dr Patrick Hillery, former President of Ireland, on the subject of general education.