Keynsian economics and J Lyons teashop

Captain J.J. Kelly

Brother Athanasius was great after a turbulent first year which had left us all suitably shocked and awed by Mike Smith, and with no better understanding of maths. His successor as form teacher was Captain J.J Kelly who arranged the trip to the Junior soldiers camp in Camberley. I was told that Patrick O’ Hara enlisted as soon as he could, and that he had been featured some time later on the cover of the national newspapers.

Brothers Chad and John

Brothers Chad and John provided some inspirational moments in history and chemistry that year, but I think it was Jerry Quinn’s passionate analysis of the Irish Famine and the Great Depression which left the best lasting impressions. Years later my Economics professor curiously asked me who had taught me my Keynsian economics. This makes me laugh today in that we do not seem to have advanced very much in the arguments.

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“Dog at my homework”

I remember having to go and see Mr. Sadek to explain why “my dog ate my homework” and Jerry Quinn, seeing me outside his study popped his head around the door and winking to Mr Sadek, asked him to keep the noise down as he had a headache. Yet, as radical as  he may have been in class, when a new form of Mass using guitars was introduced he was prompted to stage a walk out at the sacrilege being committed in church.

Working at J. Lyons

I cannot remember the French teacher’s name but Bro Gerard took over for the O Level studies and I met his brother’s French family when he popped in for tea in the J Lyons tea shop in North Street where John Rowan and I were working that summer. We met a lot of the Sussex university students working there which seemed to further inspire us to further study. John and I often had to open the shop by 6.30am and would take turns cooking each other huge breakfasts in between looking after the customers. He also had a delightfully wicked sense of humour in dealing with the public’s complaints of small measures and portions and which endeared him greatly to the manageress.