Talking about the green field site of Inniscarra Dam takes me back to day one. The people at senior level on the senior civil engineering team in the ESB were Frank Clynch and Brendan Brennan, a man who was superb engineer with very high standards. I [Ferdie O'Halloran] was one of the junior civil engineers.

I was born in 1929 and I'm originally from the Commons Road, Blackpool. The River Bride ran at the foot of the garden. Today, you have the motorway and the shopping centre on the site. My father Joe worked for Eagle Printing Works for a time. My mother Brigid (nee O'Riordan) was from Ardfert and was more affectionately known as 'Babe'. In later years, my mother and father ran a shop on the Commons Road.

I went to the North Monastery and through my mathematical interest attained scholarships, £50 per annum to attend school. Interestingly at that time I was also offered a job as a trainee clerk in the post office at £1 a week. Before going to college, I spent a short space of time, with the Met Service in Dublin Airport Meteorology which was great for developing my interest in hydrology. My two brothers, Louis and Brendan, and I went to University College Cork. The eldest of the family was Michael. All four of us went into engineering. Job opportunities were great in engineering. We were just beginning to build the country after the war. Electrical engineers and civil engineers could get jobs. Rural electrification was up and running.

My degree in engineering was three years. We learned our basic tools for learning and applying knowledge. I had already some basic philosophical knowledge for maths, logic and geometry. I loved the mental gymnastics of maths. I describe it as having adventures in pure thought. Geometry is essential to all structures for strength and layout. The formula is important. I remember my lecturer Professor Paddy Coffey, who was a fabulous teacher.

As well as attending my undergrad courses in civil engineering, I also attended night courses, two nights a week for three years. Canon Bastible gave a course on the social teachings of the Catholic Church. Alfred O'Rahilly who was also president of UCC at the time [1945 –1954] gave a course on religion and science. I also attended courses on theology and social science by Professor and Fr James E O'Mahony of the Philsophy Department, UCC. He had a way of putting ideas in your head that you thought of even a week afterwards. I was also a member of the Loft Shakespearean company through which I had a number of parts in different plays. I was also inspired by our director Fr O'Flynn and his approaches to education, especially his critique of the government's approach to education. He wanted to give students what was lacking.

Most of us in UCC were inspired to make Ireland a better place to live. We weren't all truistic. Survival was important financially. I graduated in 1950 from UCC and I was sad to leave college. I was offered a post in UCC in the engineering department but left to become an assistant lecturer in civil engineering in Queen's University, Belfast. There I was still young enough to attend the undergrad dances and attending dinner at the staff table. I gave two lectures a week on geometrical aspects – surveying and how to set out on projects. I also assisted drawing offices to lay plans out and relieved senior staff within offices on occasion.

I spent two and half years working and also completing a Masters in Foundational Engineering – the interaction between the soil and structure. I also met my future wife, Claire (nee Loughery) who was Belfast born but lived in Beleek and Omagh in her younger years in Co Tyrone. I was offered more academic work but opted for practical civil engineering work.