From raunchy Greek parties to Roches Stores, these are the summer jobs that taught us about life

It's the time of year when many young people get their first taste of employment. Jonathan DeBurca Butler talks to three well-known personalities about the jobs they did, and how the experience stood to them

Radio reporter Henry McKean (right) and his brother Charlie on one of their many summer adventures. “Charlie was the heart of the party,” says McKean of his sibling who sadly died earlier this year

In recent weeks, Leaving Cert pupils and university students have been swapping uniforms and crusty jeans for suits and overalls and going in search of summer work.

The luckier ones will take to the skies and head abroad, while others will remain and likely serve us our coffees and stack our shelves in restaurants and shops up and down the country.

Whatever job they find, it is unlikely to turn into a career, but for most, the experience will be invaluable.

‘All about confidence’

“I’ve had some really strange jobs in my time,” says Newstalk’s Henry McKean. “I went on a J1 to Hawaii. I was probably in the most beautiful place in the world, surrounded by stunning beaches, and I ended up working in a coffee factory on a conveyor belt, putting coffee into bags. That was pretty awful, to be honest.”

McKean’s career before Newstalk was varied to say the least. A stint in McDonald’s, where he earned a whopping “£3.20 an hour”, was followed by summers on Greek islands selling pub crawls.

“That was a bit crazy,” he recalls. “It involved organising rather raunchy games with pineapples and bananas and squirting concoctions of 90% alcohol with orange concentrate into people’s mouths and persuading them to come into your nightclub or on your booze cruise.”

McKean admits that it was a bit like getting people to talk on the radio.

“You’ve got to throw yourself out there,” he says. “Half of life is all about confidence, and even if you don’t know what you’re doing, if you’re confident, you’ll get away with it.”

Though he remembers those summers fondly, they are tinged with some sadness. On both trips, the broadcaster was accompanied by his younger brother and best friend, Charlie, who sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

“Charlie was the heart of the party,” says McKean. “He was so charismatic and the girls loved him. He was always making new friends or hosting cocktail parties just to make people smile. He had your back and he loved to travel and loved being on the water.

“I remember that trip to Hawaii so well. He took up surfing over there and took to it like a duck to water.”

‘A flavour of reality’

McKean’s former stablemate and RTÉ Liveline’s new presenter, Kieran Cuddihy, kept many of his summer jobs closer to home.

Kieran Cuddihy: “The first summer job I had was working with Cúl Camps coaching hurling. It was just herding cats, really."

“The first summer job I had was working with Cúl Camps coaching hurling,” recalls the 48-year-old. “I don’t know how much of a job it was to be honest. It was just herding cats, really. I did that for a couple of summers and then I got a job working with the Corpo’, as we used to call it. These were the best jobs in Kilkenny. Everyone wanted them. The pay was brilliant. This was back when minimum wage was like £2 an hour and you were getting double that.”

Cuddihy’s tasks for the Corporation varied. When he wasn’t scuffling Kilkenny’s medieval lanes and betting on snail races on the side, he was working at the water treatment plant just outside the city.

“They had these big pools of water that went through filters of sand and gravel and the sand had to be replaced over the summer,” says Kieran.

“It was too awkward to get a digger in. So a few young lads were always picked to dig it out and wheelbarrow it away. In hindsight, it was really hard work but it was some craic because we were up the hill and away from everyone. So when our supervisors weren’t around, we’d have races around the compound in the dumper. When it was sunny, we’d go swimming in the water.

“Now, that probably sounds terrible but it was actually still river water. It hadn’t been filtered yet.

“If it was raining, we didn’t have to do anything and we’d spend the day playing cards. I always remember rooting around for coins in the morning if I saw it was going to be wet.”

By the end of an over-indulgent summer, Cuddihy would often find himself rooting around for coins just to get the bus or a sandwich.

While he says working summers taught him “the value of money” to a certain extent, other life lessons were more to the fore.

“I suspect they’re often a waste of time for the employer and I’m not sure how industrious any of us were at that age, but it absolutely has a value for the kids themselves,” he says.

“It teaches you the obvious things around responsibility and resilience and that when you commit to something, you have to see it through. It also gives you a flavour of reality.

Kieran Cuddihy during his summertime work days, around 2002

“I was brought up in a comfortable middle-class world, and I guess you get conditioned to think that’s just the norm.

“Working exposes you to the whole kaleidoscope of the world and there are lots of other human experiences out there. It’s actually a lot like Liveline.”

There isn’t a single official tally for summer jobs because the CSO categorises them as seasonal work. However, statistics show that seasonal employment makes up roughly 12.6% of all jobs in the country, with young people aged 15-24 accounting for the majority of workers, with more than 38% of all seasonal work.

‘Work meant freedom’

For Ireland AM host Muireann O’Connell, professional life began at the local Raheen Food Stores near her home in Dooradoyle, Limerick.

“That’s where all the penny sweets were,” recalls the presenter. “So to get a job there, it was the thing. I started to work there the summer of my 15th birthday and that was my job throughout school.”

Muireann’s experience in retail no doubt helped her make the jump to what she describes as her “most iconic summer job” in the long-gone but fondly remembered Roches Stores in Limerick.

“I got that job through my mother,” recalls the 43-year-old. “It was a full-time summer job working with a bunch of incredibly brilliant women in the gift department, advising people what they should be getting for wedding gifts. I don’t think I’d ever been to a wedding at that stage in my life.

“I learnt so much working there and from those women. The biggest thing was confidence. They could talk to anyone. You could have a manager who was 20 years younger than them but they knew better and they had confidence in their ability and what they did. They loved their job and it was a career.

Muireann O'Connell had summer jobs at a local sweet shop, then at Roches Stores in Limerick. Picture: Leah Farrell / Rolling News

“They were in these jobs with a great company that treated them so well. But they also had great lives outside of work and they enjoyed life.”

Though she appears relaxed and at ease on screen, O’Connell has a reputation for a strong work ethic. Getting up at the crack of dawn to get to work is nothing new to her.

“I always got something out of working when I was younger,” she says. “Whether that was getting up early and gathering turf on my uncle’s farm in Kerry and discovering that you’re enjoying yourself without realising it, or like when I was babysitting at 12 or 13 and had the sense of having my own money and responsibility. I enjoyed that and the freedom of it.

“I always found that work meant freedom. You were away from your family, away from everyone knowing what you were doing, and you could find out who you were as a person.

“I reacted well to work because I knew that work would take me to where I wanted to go. So I think it stands to you. Once you get your own job, you find out who you are outside of your parents. For your own sense of purpose, it’s a great thing.”