Single mother so badly off with scholarship that she doesn't eat some weeks

Dawn Higgins and her son Aidan. The PhD student at Maynooth University has seen many of her supports as a single parent stripped as a result of her IRC scholarship 

When Dawn Higgins landed a scholarship to pursue a PhD at Maynooth University, a whole new future opened up — just as her finances sank.

The single parent who lives with her son, Aidan (8), in Kildare is now a year into her psychology PhD, with two more to go. What was a dream has become ever more difficult as she saw her support payments fall away almost as soon as she secured the Irish Research Council (IRC) scholarship.