‘There was so much diversity here it hit the three nails on the head for me’
AINDRIU DE BUITLEIR wanted to be an astrophysicist after taking up physics and chemistry in Transition Year.
But he also loved music and in his teen years joined the Socialist Party, so politics was also a big interest.
“They were three completely different things and I didn’t know what to choose for college,” says Aindriu, of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.
The 21-year-old former pupil of Coláiste Oiriall, Knockaconny, Co Monaghan then came upon the flexible BA programme in Maynooth University.
“There was so much diversity it hit the three nails on the head. I thought ‘I can do arts’.
“My parents were quite supportive. They said: ‘Go and do what you want to do’. If you do something you are interested in, you are going to follow it through.
“At the same time, they thought I was a bit mad — doing physics, music and politics.”
An enthusiastic student, Aindriu also took on philosophy and Chinese in first year.
During the year, he also realised the music end of the course was not for him. “There was a lot of history and composition,” says Aindriu, who in second year transferred to the music technology programme.
“The first class was an exam and I was working as a sound engineer at the time. Since I went into it, I love it, music technology is my thing.”
He is now doing a double major in music technology.
But he continues to be adventurous about his studies and, for his Erasmus year, Aindriu is heading to Utrecht in The Netherlands “where I am going to do philosophy, anthropology and geosciences”.
“I want to keep mixing things up and get different perspectives. With all the different insights it means I can do something really good. It’s fantastic.”
He is loving his studies so much that he feels he wants to continue even after completing his undergraduate degree.
“I feel I am going to do a master’s and a PhD.”
Although his degree will be in music, politics remains a central interest and has tested his skills by dipping his toe into student politics in the college.
And his music skills will be obvious to all at Electric Picnic next week, when he plays with his Irish trad punk band Dysania.