What a Difference a Day Makes: Cliona Maher on the letter that changed her life 

Cliona Maher tells Helen O’Callaghan about the letter she received as a 17-year-old that began her decades-long career working in the Arts – and about squeezing into a phone box in Dublin with her fellow actors to learn their Leaving Cert results.

Cliona Maher of Clonmel Junction Arts Festival. Pic: Larry Cummins

It was 1987, a month before my Leaving Cert. I was 17. I came home to Clonmel for the weekend from boarding school in Thurles and my mum said: “Oh, there’s a letter for you.”

It was on a sideboard in the sitting room. There would have been a lot of letters that year because I was applying for colleges but I didn’t know what this letter was. I opened it, saw the logo on top and read, ‘We are delighted to invite’ – I remember shrieking with delight.