School Daze: Eithne O'Halloran reflects on her school days at Kylemore Abbey

Ciara McDonnell meets Eithne O'Halloran who reflects on her school days at Kylemore Abbey.

I went to school here in Kylemore Abbey. I finished here in 1992. It was a very unusual place to go to school, our childhood lasted a very long time. Academically we were not the most gifted in the world but it was a very unique place to go to school. I went to school with lots of local Connemara girls, and we sat side-by-side with girls from all over the world, who came to the abbey as boarders. It was brilliant, but also difficult because as a teenager you tend to be very awkward anyway. We were from very rural Connemara and already felt like ‘bog trotters’ and we were sitting beside very glamorous girls from South America and from Alaska and America and Paris, so it was awkward at times.