Writer Frank McGuinness has fond memories of his student days and studying English at UCD.
Born and raised in Buncrana, Frank McGuinness moved to Dublin at the age of eighteen to attend University College Dublin. Attending college in Dublin was his first choice and crossing the border to study in Coleraine or Belfast did not interest him.
Dublin was the positive option and I have never regretted it.
Leaving home in Donegal was not easy and he recalls his first night in Dublin as a really traumatic experience, as he had never spent a night away from Buncrana before.
A kind landlady in Booterstown took him and his friend Donagh McLoughlin in and provided them with a home from home.
Life picked up once the term began at UCD. Lecturers such as Professor Denis Donoghue made a big impression on the young student from Donegal who relished this immersion in English literature and poetry.
It blows your mind.
Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Emily Dickinson were his literary heroes back then. In recent years, he has read Sylvia Plath's poetry, which confirmed a long-held opinion that she is a much greater poet than Ted Hughes.
This episode of 'Snapshots’ was broadcast on 17 September 2000. The presenter is Carrie Crowley.
‘Snapshots’ went out on Sunday mornings from 2000 to 2005 on RTÉ Radio One, and is described in the RTÉ Guide as ‘Sound pictures and songs that reflect the lives and Carrie Crowley's guests’ (RTÉ Guide 21 April 2000, p.59).
