This was a country in the middle of a social revolution, a time when fluidity should be the norm. I was myself a prime example of it. Hardly anyone in my extended family had ever gone beyond a primary education. Almost everyone, as a result, worked in manual or low-skilled jobs or as homemakers. By far the best form of social mobility was emigration – if you went to England, your kids would get a secondary education and could reasonably aspire to go further. Yet I got to secondary school and was accepted without question at UCD because I got enough points in the state exams.
