'At 16 my ambition was to die, Cork Life Centre saved me'

With the Cork Life Centre deadlocked in disagreement with the Department of Education over funding and staff retention, Donal O’Keeffe talks with former students of a northside institution offering a haven to young people failed by conventional education.

Bullied mercilessly, Amber Sheridan O’Callaghan found secondary school unbearable. She dropped out of school, and began hanging around with people who had a bad influence on her, was sexually assaulted at 16, but attending Cork Life Centre ‘saved my life’. She is now studying psychology at Waterford IT. Picture: Larry Cummins

“If it wasn’t for the Life Centre, I don’t know where I’d be,” says Amber Sheridan O’Callaghan. “If you asked me at 16 what I wanted to be, I probably would have said ‘Dead, if I’m lucky’.” 

Bullied mercilessly, Amber found secondary school unbearable. She dropped out of school, and began hanging around with people who had a bad influence on her. At 16, Amber suffered a sexual assault, something which had a devastating effect on her.