Inclusive education schemes must go on so more first-generation graduates can change their family stories forever

We have to protect Ireland’s investment in education and the social-mobility programmes that made university accessible to families like mine, writes Cian O'Donnell

Cian O'Donnell: 'Sometimes I look out the window of my office on the 63rd floor of a Manhattan skyscraper and think about how much it took to make that moment possible — not just my effort, but the sacrifices of so many in my family. Countless hours of work that allowed me to do what once seemed out of reach.'

I was the first in my family to go to university.

It’s a sentence that looks simple on the page, but in reality, it carries years of hope, work, sacrifice, and quiet belief. My parents never measured success by salary or status. They measured it by effort — by doing your best and doing it honestly. That belief became the foundation I carried with me from Limerick to the United States, and it still shapes how I see the world today.