A New Life:From the classroom to the navy, Jonathon Lyons is delighted with his career move and has taken to his new role at sea with gusto, writes Brian O'Connell
Looking at Jonathon Lyons's early CV, there's little advance notice of the sea change his career would undergo. Lyons's primary and secondary schooling was dominated by sports, especially at the Presentation College secondary school in Carlow, which he looks back on as a "great school".
Not only was the young Lyons athletic, competing with local football, hurling and soccer teams - he was also naturally studious and would become the first in his family to enter the world of third-level education.
"To be honest, I was into studying," he says, "and was helped by the fact that we had great teachers, especially in history, who were all very supportive. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. No one in my family had ever taken the college route and most of my mates went to work in local factories. I got 400 points in the Leaving Certificate, and was offered Arts in UCD and decided to take it."
It would be Lyons's first time away from home and his closely knit community, and the experience proved a difficult one at first. "I found UCD very tough. It was hard to leave home and I found it especially difficult at the start. I took history and geography as my subjects. There did come a stage where I contemplated moving home. However, I managed to get through the first year. After that, it was grand, I played a bit of sport and made some good friends."
The link to home was maintained through weekends working in a local quarry and picking up a few shifts in a bar in Carlow.
"We were told about the H Dip in second year, and that if we got high enough marks that year, then we could apply and be accepted once we passed third year," says Lyons. "A lot of my friends applied for it. I got a 2:2 in my second year and was accepted two weeks prior to my finals. I suppose my desire to teach was influenced by having such good teachers myself."
Lyons got to experience life as a teacher when he was offered some teaching in a local secondary school during his second year. While it was a nerve-wracking prospect, he found he had a natural fondness for the profession. "The first day was quite daunting, I have to say. Being from Carlow, I knew lot of pupils and was only 19 years old at the time and out of school two years. Thankfully, I took to it straight away."
For his postgraduate studies, Lyons took on the Higher Diploma in Education in NUI Maynooth. The year was a demanding one, and in between studies, he gained further experience at the Presentation College in Carlow.
Emerging with a B grade, he decided to try his hand at primary teaching, and found a post at St Aidan's National School, in Tallaght.
"I went there for what was meant to be a few months teaching cover. The first year, I worked mostly as learning support, but I liked it so much I stayed for three years in total. I loved it and really, it was a life-changing experience. I was teaching at Robbie Keane's old school and I took charge of the soccer team. The kids don't have a lot up there, but what they do get, they appreciate. For many of them, soccer was a way out. The time there was three of the best years of my life. The school won the soccer league for the first time in 13 years."
Recognising his teaching ability and affinity with the pupils, the principal asked him to consider becoming a qualified primary teacher. "I thought I'd finished with studies, yet I decided in 2005/06 to do my primary teacher training in Scotland.
"I did that, and when I finished, I took a break. I was 25. It felt like I'd been studying since I was 17." It was during this hiatus that Lyons began to consider his options. Before settling into a life of teaching, he needed to be sure he wasn't excluding other opportunities.
A year earlier, his brother had continued a family tradition by entering the naval cadets. Lyons couldn't help notice how much fitter and happier he seemed when home on leave and he began to turn his attentions to navy life.
"My brother said he had time of his life and I always said I didn't want to have regrets when I looked back on my life. I loved teaching, but I knew I could always return to it if the navy didn't work out. I had to at least try it. When I came back from Scotland, I applied for the cadets and went for a fitness test and an interview. I was called back last June for a final interview and was accepted. I decided to go for it and joined the navy cadets in September."
Lyons says there wasn't one underlying reason why the navy appealed to him. Growing up near the sea was a factor, and with an uncle and a cousin also in the service, he had always harboured a natural curiosity.
Life in the navy took some getting used to though, as he explains.
"It was a rude awakening. It would be an understatement to say it was a big change. I now had a curfew, had to keep my uniform immaculate and present for inspection every day.
"I feel I couldn't have made a better decision though. Those three months were fascinating, learning everything from rifle training to leadership, marching and drill instruction."
Having been used to keeping a classroom of pupils in line, Lyons now found himself on the receiving end of a disciplinary regime, yet took to the restrictions of navy life from the off.
"There was a sense that I had been a teacher and king of my own castle somewhat, and now here I was a pawn again! It didn't bother me - I think if it's something you want to do and if you go in with the right attitude, then the discipline isn't an issue."
Lyons has finished Turn 2 of his navy training and has already tasted overseas deployment, as well as picking up a broad range of skills.
"So far, we've had courses in everything from sea survival to fire fighting. I've also been to Italy as part of a sailing team. One of my proudest moments so far, though, came in Lourdes, where I took part in a military pilgrimage. Marching through the streets of France with the Army Pipe Band, I knew I'd made the right decision to change careers," he says.