The house hunt for first year’s accommodation began in mid-August 2014. The housing situation in Waterford was not quite at the crisis level it is today, although places were still hard to come by. I had heard that Templar’s Hall was the place to be so I sought out a meeting with an estate agent for a house viewing. Just my luck, I met into the biggest cowboy estate agent in Waterford! He met me at the front of Templar’s Hall in his brand new Audi and told me to follow him in my car. Out the entrance he went, past the college and up through Lismore park, right to the very back. I questioned him as soon as we reached the destination, but he assured me that this was a real busy college area and was even closer to the college than Templars. I had the first pick of the rooms which was about the only positive I can take from that house. It was August, I was totally oblivious to the lack of insulation in the house and Antarctic winter temperatures that were to come. Enough about my crappy first year house though, onto the good stuff.
I was lucky enough to have a close friend from home Colm Nolan in 4th year when I started. He was able to show me the ropes of the do’s and don’ts of WIT. One golden rule to always live by is never try get parking on campus after 9.05am. My first day I didn’t really know what to expect, one thing that I will always remember as a stand out is the click of local lads that all went to secondary school together. Everyone else was a bit shy and some nervous. These boys were far from. All trying to out-do each other, be the funny man. All sound lads I might add! Semester 1 flew by, as does almost every semester. The academic year as a whole flew by. Two main things that will stick with me from first year, my first official Witmas. Witmas was no new experience to me as I often visited friends that were down here for the Christmas festivities. For anyone that has not been or does not know what Witmas is, you need to get on that! The other and probably the most influential thing that’s happened me in college, was joining the WIT football team.
Once again Colm Nolan was a good friend to have about when I moved down here. He introduced me to playing football with the college. The WIT Arena had just been refurbished when I started college and anyone that’s lucky enough to grace the pitches out there knows of the outstanding playing conditions it has to offer. One of the first lads that greeted me on the team was Jamie Snell aka “The Bull”. A Rathnew man with a thick Wicklow accent, I genuinely didn’t even know if he was speaking English the first time I heard him talk! The next chap I met into was a Cork native by the name of Eoghan O’Mahony again another lad with a thick accent. It just shows you the diversity that playing college football has to offer. College football differs greatly from club football as you train all winter in dark, cold and wet conditions. Lots of lads end up living and socialising with their teammates as was the case with myself. Which leads me onto second year, where I finally made it to the college student mecca that is Templars Hall.
This time we were the bandits, we pulled a robbery on a bunch of girls for a massive seven bedroom house. Seven lads from the football team in one house, for the purpose of this college blog I cannot go into too much detail here, let’s just say it was carnage. The two lads already mentioned, Joey O’Connor, Lee Molloy, Aaron Mullins, and Micko made up the original crew. With a special guest extra housemate most of the year by the name of AZ, a truly top-man! 23 BG as it became known and where I still reside to this very day, three years on. Second year was a good time to move into Templars for me. Having made the transition back into college and passing first year, second year was a breeze. I don’t remember much about first semester except for the social side of things. Second semester lead me onto 12 weeks of placement.
Having made a number of very valuable contacts through the WIT GAA, I managed to land myself on my work-placement in the GAA office thanks to the GAA development officer at the time Conor Phelan. I had everything organised before Christmas and when the time came to begin my placement Conor had moved onto a new role in the college. This meant that I would be starting with the new development officer Katie Redmond. Katie is a WIT graduate who played ladies football with the college in her time here. It was a bit weird at the start, probably for both of us as I am older than her and her job was to order me around all day. To be honest I thought that I was signing up for a cushy little number in the office for the semester but it proved to be far from. I gained some excellent experience in there that semester. I really developed my computing and writing skills as I had a big role to play in administration. I also ran a Ladies GAGA programme as it was called, this was a 6 week programme designed to encourage women’s involvement in Gaelic football which proved to be very successful. Through my involvement both on and off the pitch with the football team that year I was awarded a Munster council scholarship for third year.
Third year brought many ups and downs. 23 BG both lost and gained some good men that year. Molloy, Mully and Micko all moved on and we got three new footballer recruits into the house. Art Lowry, Ciaran Farrel aka “Gaz” and Robert Greenan, we didn’t know what to expect with Bobby, we thought he was going to be a bit of a loose cannon being another Wicklow man. Far from though, for a 20 year old he really had his head on his shoulders. Once again another great crop of lads. I hit Witmas a little too hard that year which ended in me failing two exams that Christmas, I had to repeat them in the summer. Thankfully I passed them second time around. We had lost the Trench cup final two years running and this year proved no different. Another agonising defeat saw us lose to Mary I by a point in another final in February. The sports ball played another big role in my college experience, some great memories shared with some great friends. Also a time to socialise with some of the lectures outside of the formal college setting. This year proved to be quite the memorable one for me at the sports ball as I was awarded the DSES male sports personality of the year. It was a great honour and a big surprise to me at the time.
Onto the final chapter for now. 4th year so far has been so different in many different ways. Probably the main change is that it’s no longer all lads that I live with. Five of the lads moved on this year. Robert and I are the only two men left standing! We now live with no less than five girls. Let’s just say it’s been eventful so far in what’s now being dubbed “head-loss central”. Ah no in fairness, I was a bit sceptical at the start regarding what it was going to be like. We all get on great though. With the academic side of things, I really notice the difference. I probably shouldn’t say this as some of my lecturers will be reading this, but I never really put in any effort in September or October before. This year however, it’s been foot on the pedal from the very start. Bar a cheeky golf trip to Portugal during week two! Looking forwards to the future, I hope to get a first or second class honours degree this year and perhaps move onto a postgraduate next year in marketing. Now I must bid you all adieu and thank you all for taking your time to read this. Going back to the start, just remember. Choose your future, choose life!