Ciara O'Connor: 'My dog Gwen was a comfort during my hearing loss journey'

Lecturer and author of the just-out children’s book The Skidderwolves, Ciara O’Connor talks to Helen O’Callaghan about the devastating onset of sudden sensorineural hearing loss, how the condition has impacted her life and how it has brought renewed passion for the good stuff that life has to offer

Ciara O'Connor, author of new children's book The Skidderwolves with her dog Gwen. 

At first, I relived those 24 hours — if I hadn’t had that cup of coffee, if I hadn’t been running around like a mad thing, would it have been different?

I always had really good hearing, but on Friday, June 14, 2024, my left ear suddenly closed at work. I was on a rooftop garden with a colleague; there was construction nearby. I wondered if debris had lodged in my ear — that’s how fast and sudden the closure was.