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Child Item

Your Dad's job.

DEFTLEFTHAND

My father started off as a seaman on cargo ships, eventually working himself up to Officer class. He never rose to captain. His last rank was Chief Officer onboard the Leinster from Dub to Holyhead. "Mail Boat'.

I remember he brought me on a crosssing and back once, it was so cool beeing up on the bridge, I remember it so vividily.

He became a solicitor of all things after he left the merchant Navy.

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Gimme A Pound

Because of the OP's username ending in "hand" I keep misreading the thread title as "Your dad's hand job".

Larbre34

My Dad died two years ago this week. In his youth he was a steam train driver in the UK. Nothing was ever going to top that.

I miss him.

demanufactured

My old.man has been a working musician for as long as I can remember.

Still waters

My old man, 1 of 18, 11 boys 7 girls born into poverty in the bog, his oldest siblings had kids in America and England when he left school at 13, gets on well with everyone except his family, great man in the pub but a cnut at home, the man would kick a kitten off a fiver he was so mean, I pass the time of day now with him after years of not talking, he seems to have mellowed in old age a bit but I still see the badness show through in snippets the odd time, a man better kept at arms length as when he gets too close he eventually fcuks it all up again

storker

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

My father started off as a seaman on cargo ships,

Mine started as a shipyard carpenter, then ship's carpenter, and worked as a carpenter for most of the rest of his life.

prinzeugen

Started off as a messenger boy for the local Royal Navy airfield during WW2, joined the railway in 1947, called up for national service as a medic in Austria (only time he left the UK) went back to the railway and worked up the grades from wheel tapper to fireman.

He studied engineering at night school and became a C&W examiner and when that job went, he retrained again in environmental health.

His last job was inspecting the railway hotels. Turnbury, Gleneagles, St Andrews etc were all owned by British Rail at the time. He was also called to crashes and we were involved in one ourselves in 1984.

Because he was under the research dept in Derby we got perks. He got tickets for my uncle on the Top of the pops special in the 70s and we were on the first APT run to London.

Got free travel also!

thomil

Mine started out as a punchcard machine operator in the computer centre of a large insurance company in Germany. He later moved up to IBM mainframes before moving on to doing quality assurance for Germany's first modem and router manufacturer. He also worked as a programmer in the Czech Republic for some time in the 1990s, both as a freelancer and as an actual employee, before concentrating on being a stay-at-home husband and father.

I guess that's where my own fascination with all things IT comes from. I was raised on that stuff

Mr. CooL ICE

Grew up in a fishing village in Kerry. His brothers all went to work on trawlers or oil tigs. He finished school and worked as an intern in a bank and was considered the softie of his family for doing so. He married, my 3 sisters were born and by the time I arrived, he had been working while studying in the evening and completed a masters. Took early retirement before the recession kicked in and immersed himself in voluntary activities. When NAMA came about, he was nabbed by his old employer and was back in work for almost 2 years.

Hardest working man I know. Dunno where the fcuk he got me from.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Miya Late Moon wrote: »

I used to think that was "junk mail manager" - probably not a great job either.

Me too, was sure it was ‘junk mail manager’ until corrected.

Edgware

nails1 wrote: »

My dad steps in front of cars and sues the drivers. My other dad plays a millionaire at parties.

Obviously one of the Simpson family

Edgware

I was very disappointed when I heard my father was a politician. I always thought he played the piano in a brothel.

Poor Uncle Tom

Dad was a blacksmith, I wanted him to teach me but he died while I was still very young.

Watching him beat and move steel to his will, making tools and fixtures thought me early in life that anything is possible, if you go about it right.

Galwayguy35

He was a farmer but I always got the feeling he never wanted to be one but got left on it when his brothers went to England.

He was 57 when I was born so long gone now but he was a good man.

GoneHome

My Dad grew up on a farm in West Limerick, his brother was destined to stay at home so he had to make his own way, worked for his brother on the home farm for a few years until he'd saved up enough money to buy 30 acres of his own in South Limerick, real progressive farmer who kept building it up to 250 acres, he's in his late 60's now and still working the land, cows, cattle, etc.

Mark Rippetoe wrote: »

Hardest working man I know. Dunno where the fcuk he got me from.

Like this my Dad has an unreal work ethic, he didn't pass it down to me I have to say, all I could see was the slavery he's gone through all his life, and he has no intention of stopping anytime soon but sure look he's happy doing what he's doing

dar100

Violent criminal and alcoholic

gmisk

My dad was a plumber, worked abroad for a long time when I was growing up. We weren't close when i was young but it has improved slightly, I respect him and the sacrifices he made to give us a good start.
He worked in some crazy places including Montserrat and Iraq.
He worked in Saddam Hussains palace.....and was a prisoner during the first gulf War, he has some really brilliant stories....there is something tv/film in the works.

irishguitarlad

My Dad has been on the dole for 12 years, inspirational stuff.

Philipx

Dad was a Garda, the real 'Village Bobby' type.

The vast majority of his service in a small Midlands town.

When he retired they had to sell tickets to his retirement do, so many wanted to go.

Hundreds, and I mean hundreds, turned out for his wake & funeral.

When Guards were Guards & gurriers were afraid.

Godspeed Auld Fella

jos28

Pherekydes wrote: »

This was #1 on the day I was born.

Me too

jos28

Great idea for a thread OP. Really enjoyed reading about some amazing men. It struck me that so many of them left school so early, worked physically hard jobs, improved themselves and took care of their families. I can't imagine what it must have been like heading off to England or USA back in the 50s, probably alone and so very young.
No worries about your social media image or trying to 'find yourself' for those men. Just sheer hard work and determination to better yourself. I raise my glass to them.

r93kaey5p2izun

irishguitarlad wrote: »

My Dad has been on the dole for 12 years, inspirational stuff.

Mine was on it over 25 years when he switched to his pension. I know the feeling.

Andrew00

Worked on the building sites like some many other fathers’ of posters in this thread.

GoneHome

jos28 wrote: »

Great idea for a thread OP. Really enjoyed reading about some amazing men. It struck me that so many of them left school so early, worked physically hard jobs, improved themselves and took care of their families. I can't imagine what it must have been like heading off to England or USA back in the 50s, probably alone and very young.
No worries about your social media image or trying to 'find yourself' for those men. Just sheer hard work and determination to better yourself. I raise my glass to them.

Absolutely, I meant to say in my post my Dad left school at 15 back in the 50s.

minikin

My Dad is a retired Garda and is 80 today!
Hopefully plenty more miles left on the clock.

Ciaran_B

He was a Stock Controller - not sure what this job is. I should probably ask him next time I see him but it feels like it would be a boring convo.

Riddle101

My dad first worked for Telecom Éireann (Later Eircom) as a Rigger. He'd go around the country helping to build telephone masts and do some other stuff associated with the job. Eventually he moved to Eircell and worked there for a while, until Vodafone acquired it. He worked in Vodafone as a Radio Planner until he took early retirement in 2009. He's been retired now for about 10 years.

NSAman

Dad had a crap upbringing. His father died when he was two. His step father was an alcoholic who sent him away to live with an elderly relative. He then made him work and took his money to drink...not allowing him to go to school.

He left “home” at 13 and got a job in bars. He worked hard ending up in England where he met my mom. In England he worked three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. He was an intelligent mam, loved by all. Ended up developing a process improver for a multinational industry that still exists in production lines today.

He missed home, but with my mom’s family adopting him as their brother, he eventually moved us back to Ireland to start a small business. It grew and grew, he diversified. He always claimed his main job was providing for us.

He had a stroke early and we as a family took care of him, the same way he and mom did for us. 15 years we looked after him and it was a pleasure. When he passed, we knew he was a good dad, what we didn’t know were all the things he did for other people on the quiet.

An amazing dad and husband, who is missed by us all... he instilled a hard work ethic in us all and a sense of loyalty and fun.

Sleepy

My Dad was orphaned at 13. There was enough in his share of the inheritance to put him through the Leaving Cert in a boarding school in Wexford so that's what he did. Worked part-time in the McKee barracks during the summers (Grandad had been a Captain in the Irish Army after his release from Kilmainham for his part in the burning of the Customs House) and joined the bank straight out of school.

His first job there amounted to little more than changing backup tapes over the night shift. From there he went on to work in a travelling bank (where he and his colleagues used to play poker using stacks of punts as their chips) before settling in a branch where he met my mother, worked his way up the ranks thre and got out of branch banking when I was about 7 moving into a Software QA position and joined the management ranks when he got into project managing software implementations across the branch network.

Split from my mother when I was 18 and I was best man at his wedding 8 years ago. He'd moved up to the position of programme manager for all software rollouts in the bank by the time the recession rolled around and was lucky enough to take advantage of the first round of early retirement packages offered (the one the government made the banks reduce as it was deemed too generous!).

At the age of 63, he's now been happily retired for 4 years or so, working part-time in a charity shop to keep busy.

Physically I resemble my mother's side of the family but mentally I think I'm far more my father's son. He'd a hard start in life but achieved more than I ever will professionally: the pensionable job for life with real career opportunities and decent money is long gone: you'd literally make more stacking shelves in Dunnes than in an entry role in a bank these days and a pension that'd let you retire before the age of 60 is a fantasy for most of us.

This thread makes for interesting reading: there really was more inequality in Ireland in the past. The fathers in this thread whose families couldn't afford to educate them to Leaving Cert level seem to have had much harder lives whereas now almost all of us have degrees and the job market is far more equitable.

morritty

My dad's a Hide and Seek champion.

I was counting to 20, heard a door slam, I'm still searching the house 20 years later.

Deise Vu

My dad was a Garda Sargent in a country village before moving to Waterford. It was a different world back then, he would get a phone call from somebody miles away in the middle of the night saying there was someone in their back yard and he would head off in hot pursuit .......on his bicycle. We used to live in the Garda barracks so we had a cell in the house! First thing in the morning the village drunks had to endure was being eyeballed and laughed at through the peephole by me or one of my brothers after getting a boost up from each other.

It must have been scary at times though, I remember watching him heading up the village square to where the whole village seemed to be gathered to watch two fishermen beating the tar out of each other. Dispensing instance justice seemed to be the way back then, he had a fairly serious looking baton on him at all times. Years later I was told a story by a really rough taxi-driver who recognised my name. He said him and another two hard men had stolen a very large bell from a Protestant church on a hill outside the village. They struggled to get it down to their van on the road whereupon they were apprehended by my dad. I asked the taxi driver did it end up in court but he just laughed and said "the bastard made us bring it back up the hill... it took all night."

All that activity must have been good for him though, he lived to the ripe old age of 91 and enjoyed every minute of his retirement.