Among the things that most distinguished life in Belgium from life in Ireland were that everything started much earlier in the morning, people went to bed earlier, and everyone seemed to have bigger and better cars. The Keerys, like most Irish families moving to the first available posts in European institutions, found that we were expected to adapt to such patterns of lifestyle. We did, with the exception that we continued to go to bed much later than most other nationalities.

Getting a bigger and better car was made easy by the tax-free purchasing programme which had been set up to facilitate the initial establishment of a European public service in Brussels. The Keerys chose a Volvo station wagon as best suited to years of travel to and from Ireland and between the Brussels based Commission and the European Parliament in Luxembourg, and of transporting the impedimenta of family holidays and outdoor activities – all hopefully to be the stuff of the years immediately ahead.

Life looked rather different from the wheel of the latest model large Volvo, a car which we found hard to park outside our rented house. The steeply sloping garage entry and the height of the garage door meant that getting the car into the garage required all the care and attention to detail necessary to getting a ship into a bottle.

Early rising was the challenge which seemed to impose most on the Keery household. I feel as if I have total recall of every centimetre of the 150 meters or so from our hall door on Avenue Van Goolen to the tree in an adjoining road which served as the collection point for the coach which stopped there morning and afternoon on its way to and from the European School at Woluwe in which Justin was enrolled. To get the bus, Justin had to be there, washed, fed, fully dressed and fully equipped by 8 a.m.. That proved a daily challenge of wills, particularly in winter.

Waking Justin and then making sure he got out of bed and washed required very careful monitoring, particularly if he was to have time for breakfast. Nine times out of ten he had to be negotiating his coat and schoolbag as he was going through the front door.

Neither Anne nor I were great runners, but we often had to be able to tow Justin along the last 100 meters of uneven pavement to catch the bus, which was usually punctual and occasionally early. There was no question of allowing Justin to leave unaccompanied because in the first 100 meters of the 200 meter walk there was a busy road-crossing which had to be negotiated carefully.

These morning duties quickly became stressful, giving many days an angry and noisy start. In situations like these, what can a family who is against corporal punishment do to try to change the ways of a recalcitrant child? When Anne mentioned the problem to her new friend Pat the answer materialised in the form of “The ABC of the Practical Parent”.

Although Anne and I studied the proposed volume with initial scepticism we quickly saw that it was a book with a central common-sense thesis that made it a useful follow-on to Dr. Spock on baby care. The book said that young children were fully capable of understanding the consequences of actions and should be led like adults to agree patterns of behaviour with clear consequences. Whenever it was agreed that there might be serious negative consequences within the power of the parents it was essential to communicate the message that those consequences would follow as night follows day – no matter what pain and discomfort might be involved.

Applying this approach to the challenge of early morning departure for school, Anne and I agreed with Justin that if he were not dressed and ready to go on time, there was no alternative but that he would have to be brought down to the bus stop in his pyjamas. The first morning after this agreement Justin appeared fully dressed in our bedroom asking if we would like a glass of orange juice. We had never imagined such an immediate success and were impressed and encouraged that morning departures were seldom again as stressful as they had been. In the years immediately ahead, and particularly when Patricia became old enough to participate in a round-table contract approach to family decision-making, the wisdom of “The ABC of the Practical Parent” would continue to prove itself as a way of reducing confrontation and modifying antisocial behaviour patterns.

In the first year in Brussels it was important to try to encourage Justin and Patricia to take up new activities in their new environment. Justin was delighted with a Saturday morning class in practical electricity for young people in a local technical school. Patricia enjoyed a weekly dancing class, particularly the dressing up in dancing tights and shoes.

Justin’s interest in electricity and Patricia’s love of shoes were to become distinctive features of their development in the years ahead.

Read more: 1976 – The End of the Hillery Mandate