TAILTEANN


Products Of Our Environment



Fergal



"Relative to their younger siblings, first-born children tend to be more assertive, disciplined, and academically inclined."



- Psychology Today



as part of an evocative teaser campaign for amstrad's pioneering colour personal computer back in the mid 80's...





...renowned British entrepreneur Alan Sugar promised launch-event invitees they would get to "meet Einstein, Archimedes, Shakespeare, Monet and Ravel" upon the day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many took Sugar’s words with a grain of salt. To a spellbound 8 year old from Tipperary however, who used the machine to code his own Blackjack game before his ninth birthday, it did exactly what it said on the tin.



fergal's magical first encounter with the cpc 464 took place...





...during a family visit to his Aunt Sheila’s family home in Ranelagh, Dublin. Irrespective of the weather, both sets of first cousins would always spend their time playing together in the back garden. On this occasion though, Amstrad's latest and perhaps greatest product ensured all fun was being had indoors.


After he was handed the aptly named “joy-stick” and briefly shown how to manipulate the Indiana Jones-like game character, Roland; Fergal explored the Egyptian pyramids with all the gusto of a young Napoleon Bonaparte. Closely observing his sense of wonder was his mother, Siobhan. She believing a PC of Fergal’s very own would help to further develop his inquisitive personality, one was soon ordered upon which her eldest son would live, love and learn.



a decade later, the time had come for fergal to decide...





...on which college course to pursue. To none of his clan’s surprise, the undertaken aptitude test results pointed in a very definite direction – Computer Programming. That August, he was offered the place he craved in the 1997 - 2001 Information Technology and Telecommunications Undergraduate Degree Class at the University of Limerick.



the course work came...





...pretty easy to him. Not wholly unlike Good Will Hunting in the eponymously titled hit movie of that same year, Fergal couldn’t play the piano, couldn’t paint a picture, and probably couldn’t hit the ball out of Fenway Park. But when it came to stuff like writing code, he could “just play."


Four years later, Fergal graduated not only top of his class but with a record Q.C.A (i.e. grade average). Along the way, Fergal was honoured to accept 7 “Golden Letters of Congratulations” from U.L's Founding President, Dr. Ed Walsh, as well as “The Silver Medal”, which is the most prestigious award an undergrad within the University can attain.



seemingly very Eager to keep hold of him, u.l offered fergal...





...a unique opportunity to complete the Institution’s very first Masters of Technology by Research, which he humbly accepted. At such a juncture, Fergal was also privileged to accept an invite to lecture both 4th Year and Post-Graduate programming students.



upon completion of this 2 year course (during which fergal...





...published several papers, and received further awards, including the Advanced Scholar Bursary, and the John & Pauline Ryan Research Scholarship twice), the University made repeated attempts to persuade him to extend his ties, each of which he politely declined. He felt his calling simply lay elsewhere – it was now time for him to try help introduce the next generation to Einstein, Archimedes, Shakespeare, Monet and Ravel, among many others.



RECENT PERSONALITY TEST RESULTS





As a starting point to better understand us (and by extension, our products) we agreed to undertake Personality Test results, and publicise the...


...Results

TAILTEANN


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