Prof Ian Robertson: ‘My Father Was More Like a Brother, and My Brother Was More Like a Father’

Prof Ian Robertson: ‘My father was more like a brother, and my brother was more like a father’

The Trinity College Dublin emeritus professor of psychology reflects on family, Ireland and anger

The Older I Get, the More I Understand What My Father Was Fixing

He wasn’t a developer. He didn’t know code. But watching him fix that old bike taught me more about debugging than any course ever could. The chain never held. The tires deflated. The handlebars always leaned slightly left. Still, he showed up with his hands, not complaints. He never said what was wrong. He just tried, adjusted, iterated. Quietly. Years later, I catch myself doing the same. Not just in code, but in life. We fix things not becaus…