I had great plans for a month to myself between finishing college and the first of the kids finishing up school for the summer. However, as soon as I handed in that last assignment, all the stuff I’ve been putting off all year came home to roost, and I have been running around like a…
I’m not really a poetry person – I could never get into the poetry I studied in school, I found most of it impenetrable and boring. But I’ve loved Pam Ayers and, thanks to her, I’ve always remembered to Look After me Teeth. I also have a favourite Haiku: A Haiku about being an…
The last assignment has been submitted and so, just like that, year one is done. It’s been a tough year, learning how to balance the dramas of family life with my precarious health, full-time college, keeping the house up and running and the family fed, but it’s been great too. I’ve had so much…
The pressure is on! My first year of being a mature student is coming to an end and it’s time to get all those assignments finished and submitted. I’m swinging wildly between “Ah sure its grand, I’ve plenty of time”, to lying awake in bed panicking and scratching my newly erupted stress hives. I’m also…
When our son was born with Down Syndrome, the path of our lives changed forever. All our plans and expectations were suddenly put on hold and our lives became a rollercoaster of doctors and hospital appointments and therapy sessions. While we reeled from the shock of being thrown into this new world, we had…
This time last year, my son finally got a place in special school and the difference it has made to all our lives has been incredible. To see him thrive in a place where he is valued rather than tolerated has hammered home to us the importance of true inclusion rather than the tokenistic version that…
The discourse around the most recent referendum has been yet another exercise in soul baring to beg for access to basic human rights. We did it for marriage equality, we did it for repeal the 8th and now here we are again, telling our stories about the inhumane ways we have been treated and neglected…
I do. I care a lot. I care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and I’ve been doing that for the past 12 years. And tomorrow, I am being asked to vote in a constitutional referendum where it would seem our government doesn’t care at all. As a campaigner for the rights…
As a trad fiddler, I always had a gig or two on St Patrick’s Day. Some of them have been humdrum, but a couple stand out as WTF. In Dublin one year, I played an afternoon gig in the Parnell Mooney. Mid-tune, a brawl burst through the door. One of the brawlers pickup up a bar…
I have finally found something to say no to! Since starting my course in Ballyfermot, I have actively tried to take part in everything I can. I am that mature student who puts their hand up for everything. I am making the most of every minute and doing as much as I can in the…