P.J is my father. He died 36 years ago, aged 56. He was a dedicated teacher, a devoted dad, a passionate angler, widely read, addicted to crosswords, good at carpentry and invisible mending. I think he would have loved experiencing the technological advances that have been made in the years since he died. He was an innovator in his classroom, and took on board curriculum reform and revision and the introduction of whatever new technology was available in the early seventies. He spoke Irish fluently as a first language, and he was very involved in local politics. When he died suddenly he left a huge gap in our lives. Our mother, like her mother before her, spent a longer period of her adult life as a widow than as a wife.