Mature students: Meet three people who are succeeding along their own paths
Some of the mature students making their own way this academic year.
“I’ve turned into such a nerd,” says Ennis-based Gráinne Flynn, who’s heading into her final year of a BA degree in Public Administration and Leadership with Digital Culture and Communications at University of Limerick.
Gráinne, 50, began the course in 2020. It’s one of the best decisions she has ever made. But back when she was in Leaving Cert, nobody would have said she was a nerd.
“I did well in my Leaving Cert but afterwards I wanted to get as far away from education as possible. My priority was getting out of rural Ireland.”
At 17, she tried two PLC courses in drama before realising this wasn’t a good fit. Then a health crisis derailed any plans she had.
“Bang in the middle of that second year, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It turned my life upside down, shattered my confidence as a young adult.”
Instead of exploring new horizons, Gráinne now wanted the safety and security of home. “I moved back for about five years. It took a while to find myself again, go back out in the world.”
When she did, unemployment rates were high. She did a computer course, worked in retail, struggled to get office work, and finally fell into school-based secretarial jobs before getting hired by a computer software company in Dublin.
Then came an office accounts job in DCU’s finance department.
“I loved DCU, the atmosphere, my colleagues – but the job itself wasn’t that interesting to me.”
After meeting her American-born husband, Phil, they moved to Minnesota, where she got her Green Card and worked as a receptionist in a small company.
“I was really unhappy and fed up with all the office jobs. I remember Phil saying ‘you’re going to spend so much time working, you need to enjoy it’.”
The couple moved back to Ireland and Gráinne became a stay-at-home to her children, now aged 19 and 17. Her struggle to find good diabetes care here led her to Diabetes Ireland.
She and another patient set up a local support group in Clare. “I went from being a diabetes information event organiser, and providing support to others with diabetes, to advocating with local politicians on what was needed to improve services. Over the years, Diabetes Ireland was my mentor.”
A Clare county councillor told her lots about policy work and how Government works. Communicating with media, attending international conferences, meeting other advocates in the diabetes field piqued an interest in politics and public administration.
“It ignited a passion. I had a cause. I was super-interested in Irish politics, how policy is influenced, created and implemented. I thought what if I did this kind of work for some other health organisation?”
But feeling that she “was missing something”, that she needed to “fill in the blanks”, led her to the mature student office in UL.
Here she was guided towards the course she knows has set her on the right path. Offered the place, she was thrilled but nervous. “I was returning to school after 30 years. I hadn’t done anything academic in so long and now I was going to be with 18-year-olds fresh out of Leaving Cert. I wondered would I be able.”
Her worries proved groundless. “I love the course. It has given me the confidence to say ‘I can do this kind of job, I’m pretty sure I’d be good at it’. I just want to get to the final curtain and start applying for jobs. I’ve lots of experience in the area I want to work in and I’m excited it’ll be something I care about.”
Offered a place on the BSc Science degree at South East Technological University, Waterford, in 2018, Michelle Dooley felt totally unprepared and deferred it for a year.
“I was petrified. I didn’t think I’d get the place and I didn’t have the confidence to go into it,” recalls the 34-year-old single mum of four children, aged 17, 13, nine and six.
But alongside the terror was Michelle’s conviction that she wanted a better life for her children.
“I wanted that more than I was petrified of going to college. I’m the first ever in my family to do a third-level degree. I wanted my children to see that education is important, that it’s normal to complete second-level, go onto third-level.”
She also had a “now-or-never” sense about it. “I thought it’s only four years – and those four years will pass anyway, whether I go or not.”
Michelle, who’d previously given up part-time work in retail so as to focus on her children, is now starting the final year of her degree.
“Single mothers might think going to college isn’t very achievable, but it is. Don’t get me wrong – there are days when the house is upended. We’re running behind the clock all the time.
“But college has had such a profoundly positive effect on me – without them behind me, I don’t know how far I’d have got. Days I couldn’t go into college because the kids were sick, there was never any judgment. There was only ever support.”
Describing regular clashes between her college timetable and school collection/extra-curricular drop-off, Michelle says: “There are times when I get one day off every two weeks, but I love the course, the college – I’m passionate about it.”
Her course choice is because she has “loved Science forever” and she wants to also do a Masters. “Four years ago I’d have laughed that I’d be considering a Masters. I’ve a lot more confidence in my abilities now.”
She hopes to become a physician associate, “a relatively new role that complements the medical team”.
The motto that keeps her going, she heard from a lecturer just weeks into her first year – ‘you didn’t come this far to only come this far’.
“I remember it because it’s true,” says Michelle.
Tim Murphy was 16 when he finished secondary school in Cork city. “My father died. Back then there was no choice. I often wondered how I would have done…it was always on my mind.”
Now a 71-year-old granddad living near Tralee, Tim worked in sales and marketing all his life, retiring nine years ago for health reasons. “I wasn’t ready to retire. I felt restless and was looking for something to do. I worked with the Samaritans for just over two years.”
The impulse that he had “something to give back” led him to UCC – and to the Diploma in Youth and Community Work.
“I went to UCC, told them what I was thinking. They were very helpful. They looked at my history, my age profile and felt because of my Samaritan [experience] this might be a suitable course.
“It was fabulous – I never thought I’d be inside the door [of UCC]. I hadn’t sat in a formal education setting for 50 years. I didn’t know what to expect.”
As part of the course, Tim did a 100-hour placement with Tralee Youthreach. It had a big impact.
“These young people had fallen out of the system and Tralee Youthreach brought them back in – extremely intelligent and articulate young people. It left a huge mark on me, which is why I’m now going on to do courses in mentoring and in facilitation.”
Set to graduate this autumn, Tim says: “I loved the camaraderie and support, the bit of fun. I’ve lifelong friends out of it – we have a WhatsApp group. It has all made a huge difference to my life, in every aspect – my confidence, my self-belief. I’ve a tremendous need now to give back.”
His one regret? That he didn’t do it 10 years earlier.
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