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At the end of the war, the family moved to Belfast, where jobs proved scarce. At a very early age, I was made aware of the sectarian divide. However, on the positive side, I will always remember my voracious appetite for jigsaw puzzles. At the age of only 4 years’ old, I would take on adult-standard puzzles of several hundred pieces. I honestly believe that this was the start of my development as a convergent thinker. On the very day that I should have started infant school, I was diagnosed with German measles and was whisked off to hospital for six weeks in an isolation ward. Throughout this entire period, my parents were not allowed to visit me. This extended depravation of maternal nurture did lasting damage throughout my life ~ and temporary damage to my education.
In an attempt to gain employment, the family (now with an additional sister, Sheila) moved back to that same NE coastal village where we shared a two-up two-down cottage with an uncle, aunt and two cousins. My father finally was employed as a datal hand in one of the local coal mines with responsibility for transporting pit props here and there by pit pony and cart. I was then five and a half and it would be another seven years before I could enjoy the luxury of electricity, running water, a flush toilet and a bedroom of my own. Whenever anyone starts up their personal account of “We were so poor …”, they have no idea! As an 11+ failure, I was later classified as a “late developer” and, when I eventually passed the 13+, the old Grammar School system proved my saviour ~ and I didn’t look back!