Charlie Bird failed his leaving, is what my ma used to say. Every time I became distressed that school life wasn’t for me.
As a little nugget of hope and an “it’s not everything”
I loved hearing that line and I wasn’t even entirely sure at the time who Charlie Bird was but it told me, everything will be fine!
Even now at 30, and my miraculously passed leaving cert so many years behind. When I’m feeling out of sorts with the rest of the world, like I’m not ticking the boxes I should. I say to myself “sure Charlie Bird failed his leaving” and the reassurance of an Irish mammy washes over me.
Poetic Duchess 