Sadly, few boys these days have meaningful relationships with male mentors and father figures, men who can teach and inspire them. Some boys grow up without having been taught by a male teacher or are taught by teachers who have no life or work experience outside of a classroom.

LEFT: Michael Walsh and his older brother pictured with their father Patrick Roe McLaughlin. By the time he had reached his 40th birthday, Patrick had fought frontline in the Irish War Against the Black and Tans, in the Irish War of Independence, Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and as a flight engineer 1st Class he flew Spitfires and Hurricanes – but not in battle.

Many young males go through education taught only by female schoolteachers as alpha-males have abandoned that career. The boys in many a modern British home may have several ‘fathers’ over time. How times have changed.

As a youngster I used to call around to see my mates. ‘He’s out, he is helping his dad.’ The lad’s father might be a builder or mechanic; a marine painter but the youngster was being moulded in masculine ways. Often heard; ‘My dad’s helping me with the Meccano set,’ or ‘I’m going fishing with my dad.’

Ty uchr Llyn (House above the lake) No plumbing, no water, no fire save of wood, no electricity. Everything eaten was grown, trapped or shot. Life was basic but self-sufficient happy.

My dad, self-taught in Gaelic, had fought in four conflicts by the time he reached his fortieth birthday. His passion was writing and he patiently taught me the art of written communication. Today I practice what he preached.

It is said that when you educate a man you educate an individual; educate a woman you educate a family. No one is going to argue with that but when you educate a big man you educate all the little men. At school I recall only female teacher; Miss Illingsworth; an absolute angel of a woman.

Miss Illingsworth, my schoolteacher (right) who like my mother inspired me to write. Miss Illingsworth once wrote, ‘Michael has the ability to become famous as a writer.’ I was 14-years of age.

The rest were men and they were no angels. Many had service backgrounds. From them we learned discipline and respect; respect for women, your elders and your peers. They were lions teaching cubs how to get things right and stop fooling about. Our first drones experienced were hurled wooden blackboard dusters.

My stepfather taught my brother and me how to live off the land by fair means or foul. From him we learned, often the hard way, that necessity is the mother of invention and self-sufficiency a virtue.

My brother and I helped lumberjacks clearing the forests of Wales. At 13-years old we were helping to fell great pines. For our household fires we took timber straight from the surrounding woods. My truly tough Liverpool mates, after we moved, were members of boxing or ju-jitsu clubs; they played football. Several were members of the Church Lads Brigade, Sea or Army Cadets; the Boy’s Brigade. They were taught manly things and manly ways by real men.

So far so good and then for me it was sea training school then sea-going career.

There it was a different kind of male mentoring; you learned that the price of indiscipline was more than a thick ear. Those men practiced what they preached. They were preparing us youngsters for life in which getting it right and wrong was the difference between life and death. It is hard to imagine anyone better able to guide young men.

Not to be forgotten the men who had gone before us and left their lessons behind; the adventurers, the poets and the writers who had carved a path for us youngsters to follow. These include my father with who I hotly disagreed on ideologies but he fought for a better world his way as I fought my way. I think we still admire each other even though he has long ago gone to his Valhalla.

I am not here to judge. I just do wonder at times if we have made a rod to beat our own backs with when young men were abandoned by real men. ~ Michael Walsh