The Institutes of Technology, were set up in the early 1970's, in Ireland, to provide third level technological education. In the early years they conferred certificates and diplomas but in recent years they also confer degrees.
The Carlow Institute opened in 1970. I went to work there in 1972, having completed my studies for an MSc in Physical Organic Chemistry at University College Galway, and finished up there in May 1999.
I was conferred with the MSc in 1973. Prior to that I had obtained an BSc (Hons) also at University College Galway, majoring in Chemistry, with a Physics minor. Before that my secondary education was at Mercy College, Woodford, Co Galway and St Joseph's College, Garbally, Ballinasloe.
I am a native of Woodford and I also had my primary education there. During my second year at Carlow IT, I studied for the Higher Diploma in Education at Maynooth College, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland (NUI), and was conferred with that in 1974. More recently I was conferred with a Diploma in Counselling from Maynooth College in 1994 and am at present studying for a Bachelor or Arts degree with the Open University.
Carlow town, where I live, is a prosperous market town to a rich agricultural hinterland and is situated on the River Barrow about fifty miles south-east of Dublin. It is the county town of County Carlow, the second smallest county in Ireland, after County Louth, whose county town, Dundalk, also has an Institute of Technology. The South-east of Ireland is the main tillage area of the country. Sugar beet is the main cash crop in the Carlow area and it supplies the Sugar Factory which is the main industry in the town. The Agricultural Institute at Oakpark, Carlow, specialises in Crop Research and is part of Teagasc the National Agriculture and Food Development Authority.
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