Tipperary’s Senior Hurling player Brendan Maher is special guest at Tipperary graduation

Templemore College of Further Education held its Graduation Ceremony in the Templemore Arms hotel recently. This was a proud day for the graduates and their families and friends.

The ceremony began with an address by the College Principal, Dr Noel Colleran. He began by referring to the band Supertramp, who in 1979 released its Breakfast in America album.

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Included was a song entitled The Logical Song. The songwriter suggested it is about the corroding effect of life which starts with beauty and magic but as we go on we are required to become compliant with manufactured norms and in the end nobody knows how to think for themselves.

He continued “over the past years we have been told by the ‘people that know’ that we should be very concerned about Brexit, Trump’s America, the rise of nationalism in Europe and throughout the world. We are told that these regressions are the result of decisions made by uneducated, populists who are incapable of the right decision. It is interesting that the source of this critique is the captains of industry, people of quality, and the opinion-makers. It seems that these elites have cornered that market when it comes to knowing the ‘right’ decision. It seems that, for the rest of us, the question can be framed in a binary fashion: is the populists or the people of quality who are ‘right’?

Dr Colleran continued “from an education perspective, which teaches us to question, to reject compliance, and encourages us to think for ourselves, we are encouraged have no truck with this binary choice and take the third way and back ourselves. We need to become critical citizens and while our decisions may not be ‘right’ we own them and stand by them.

He concluded “critical citizenship: the product of an effective education process, will provide the confidence for all of us to listen to the populists and the elites, and then decide for ourselves. Our internal beauty and magic, which is educated to reject compliance and maintain a healthy scepticism, is well capable of these decisions, and defends us from the pervasive manufactured norms.”

Special guest, Tipperary’s Senior Hurling player Brendan Maher, addressed the graduates and guests with his thoughts on success.

He reflected on his childhood and life experience and spoke about his career challenges.
According to Brendan Maher there are two key factors that contribute to an individuals success – drive and persistence. He said ‘in order to succeed at what you want to achieve you must persist and keep on trying’. He congratulated the graduates of

TCFE and wished them success in their future.

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of Awards to the graduates by the Special Guest, Brendan Maher, and the College Principal Dr. Noel Colleran.