My story

Since leaving formal education at the age of thirteen I have worked primarily in wood throughout my life. My skills as a self-employed furniture-maker is the foundation of my values system and how I view the world today. My world view was further enhanced when I established Just Forests in Tullamore in 1989-please note the website is no longer updated and is used only as an archive of my development education work.

Over the years I have been approached by numerous parents asking if I would give “woodwork classes” to their children. My immediate reply was, “I’ll get back to you”.

CHAPTER 1:
Introduction - the early years

For those of you who don’t know me my name is Tom Roche. I was born in 2 Chapel Street (and grew up in 70 Clontarf Road), Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland. As a young boy I served an apprenticeship as a carpenter in a small family-run workshop in Market Square, Tullamore. It was a fascinating time for me. The workshop provided me with opportunities to engage with a very wide-ranging set of interrelated aspects of craftwork but in particular woodwork from cart and wheel making to joinery and furniture repairs. Also, during that era it was common practice to replace handles in shovels, forks and so on, rather that discard them.

The harvest time was a particularly busy time in the O'Connor workshop as farmers needed ‘grass boards’ for their mowing machines and ‘connecting rods’ for their combine harvesters.

"My love and appreciation for my trade became my 'passport' to travel the world."

While working for Barney O’Connor was a great learning time for me, I was unknowingly preparing for an adventure that has shaped my life ever since. I was always attracted to ‘far away places’. So after failing the Royal Air Force (RAF) entrance exam in Belfast I applied for a visa to travel to Australia (see my passport below). During the sixties the Australian government were looking for tradesmen-carpenters, plasterers, plumbers and so on. In 1967, just one month after my eighteenth birthday I landed in Melbourne, Australia – a recipient of the Australian government’s ‘Assisted Passage Scheme’ for the sum of 10 pounds.