IPPN

Published: 12 January 2011

Thanks to the weather, we nearly got the Christmas holidays we wanted. After coming back from the Halloween midterm on the day after Halloween, I believed that the Department's utter and final separation from reality had come into being.

I ask you, who made that decision, returning to classes the day after most Irish kids have been enjoying themselves on the most busy night for boozing, arson, killing defenceless pets and stoning Garda patrol vans?

Do they have no respect for the traditions of this country?

Christmas holidays normally start just when the toy shops run out of all the faddy stuff and you've still got a pile of tests to correct and write up.

The 22nd or 23rd of December? Much too late, and my missus tells me that she's fed up schlepping a turkey and ham all the way back home from Dunnes on her own, with the kids and me stuck in an overheated school listening to 'Jingle Bells' when we could be helping.

Then the snow came to the rescue and we were off a good three days before Christmas Eve, free to dance around in the snow like in all the movies.

You even had time to fit in Hanukkah, already. Even though it was Christmas it was the devil who found work for my idle hands.

Full Story: www.independent.ie