Introduction by Elizabeth O’Dea, a teacher at St.Mary’s College Arklow who worked on the project with Transition Year students.

As a secondary school teacher at St. Mary’s College, Arklow I have seen the impact of lockdown life on young people. Chloe Dore’s wonderful poem ‘Cocooned or Marooned’ sums up the contradictions of lockdown well: we’re safe, we’re keeping others safe, but nonetheless we feel at sea. No doubt these feelings of being marooned and isolated were shared by young and old alike. So many experiences that define being a young person finding your way in the world, and finding yourself along the way, have been take from them. But I have also seen tremendous resilience and optimism in the wonderful young women at our school. So, when Aoife sent out the call for young people to get involved in this project I knew we could rise to the challenge.

We ran the project as an extra curricular activity during the lengthy time of remote learning in early 2021. The Transition Years were at home for long months that Spring, but we zoomed & emailed and reached out to Seniors in our community. I think the students’ creative responses describe how rich these encounters were, better than I ever could. There are four beautiful and thoughtful poems, two illustrations, one photograph and one baking adventure. Well done to our students who took the initiative to grab this opportunity and make memories for the Time Machine.

Molly Bourke

Molly uses the recipes that her mother passed onto her by word back in the 1940s.

Sheila Kavanagh Clancy

“This shared experience has since brought us closer than we were before”

Margaret Dore

Margaret got the chance to voice her opinion regarding the pandemic and this peculiar situation we find ourselves in.

Marie Lee

Marie and Freya bonded over shared interests!

Ann Thornton

There is so much history and wisdom right at your doorstop, if you just take the time to sit down and talk

Anne Tyrell

Rachel says it was heart-warming to listen to all of Anne’s lovely stories about family

Nancy Quinn

“Follow your dreams!”

Leilani Phillips

“We often speak about my life but the project allowed me to see her [my grandmother’s] life more.”