Annual Retreat in Manresa House

I /.../joined the Legion of Mary voluntary in order to sell religious newspapers outside the church, and kept a large percentage of the takings to enrich my lifestyle and fund my hobbies and habits. I sold flags from boxes around the city to save the Irish language, which I tried to destroy, and became quite skilled at removing money from the boxes, without it being noticed. I’m sure the language suffered because of this.The cash flow gave me some freedom, and when the class went on the Annual Retreat to Manresa House in Clontarf it covered the cost of cigarettes, and when the three-day retreat finished, we visited 'Cafalloas' ice cream parlour in O’Connell Street, Dublin’s main street, with my willing friends in order to chat up the more mature school girls, who also congregated in this hot spot.

The Retreats were run by the Jesuits and during one of lectures the priest got excited and told us we were all going to burn in hell as ‘we were the young ones’, but we weren’t too worried about this as we knew we were going to live forever.
This was the beginning of the era of Cliff Richard with the big hit ‘The young ones’:
Darling we’re the young ones
And the young ones
Shouldn’t be afraid
To give love
While the flame is strong
Cause we may not be the young ones
Very long...
The priest thought the world was going to pieces and we were losing it, and believed this song was corrupting us. The Jesuits didn’t realise that we didn’t need help, as we were corrupt before the song existed.