Poor: Grit, courage, and the life-changing value of self-belief

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This is the extraordinary story - moving, funny, brave, and sometimes startling - of how Katriona turned her life around. How the seeds of self-belief planted by teachers in childhood stayed with her. How she found mentors whose encouragement revitalised those seeds in adulthood, leading her to become an award-winning academic whose work challenges barriers to education. Moving, funny, brave and original - just like the author ... absolutely incredible' - Roísín Ingle, Irish Times Women's Podcast international comparison of the experiences and outcomes of students participating in a Irish and UK Foundation Course for Full of insight into a life lived right up against the boundaries placed on it by poverty . . . so important . . . we'd highly recommend Fi Glover, Off Air with Jane and Fi, Times Radio higher education, with students who have entered university through the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR). The

One of the best books I have ever read about the complexities of poverty . . . one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet Guardian

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Why do you want to do this course?” the interviewer asks me. He seems nice but I’m sure he can see through me. “I want to change my life,” I reply. “I feel like I’m missing something.” He smiles and I’m sure I’ve said something wrong. “Do you read books,” he asks. “Yes,” I say. “I have always loved to read”. He smiles again and makes a note. The current research will develop a systematic evaluation of the differing access routes into higher education. It aims to

This book will make you aware of the privilege that most of us were brought up with and took for granted… even joked about: mothers interrupting play and calling us home for a hot dinner every day, enduring a weekly bath and being sent to school in starched clean clothes, having a routine and a quite house to sleep in at night… and not wake up in a drug den with a stranger on the couch. So much of what happened to Katriona O’Sullivan should NOT have happened but it did. She is a real life Shuggie Bain. Dr Katriona O’Sullivan was born in Coventry to Irish parents. She now works as a senior lecturer in Digital Skills in Maynooth University’s Department of Psychology. In this extract from her biography, Poor, she describes a childhood of poverty dominated by the spectre of her parents’ addictions, which included time spent in a care home. O’Sullivan was cleaning toilets in the train station when a chance encounter with an old friend on O’Connell Street changed the course of her life. The friend, also a young single mother, told O’Sullivan how she was studying law in Trinity College.Most of the time being poor felt like a sodden blanket which was lying heavy across my shoulders dragging me down into dark waters" Quinlan A;O'Brien KK;Galvin R;Hardy C;McDonnell R;Joyce D;McDowell RD;Aherne E;Keogh C;O'Sullivan K;Fahey T; (2018) 'Quantifying patient preferences for symptomatic breast clinic referral: a decision analysis study'. BMJ Open, . [DOI] extra school provision where needed and supporting the development of national and institutional access routes into higher Quotes like "Poor cuts through lots of jargon, words like disadvantaged, underprivileged, deprived or under class. Words that have their place but don't capture the visceral truth of what it is to grow up the way I did. The way thousands of children are growing up right now.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of this in Katriona's life I think - she says so herself. It was a pivotal moment in helping her understand that she was worthy of loving care and attention; that she was somebody. All children deserve love and respect and without that and the necessary societal supports and pathways to education, the cycle of poverty will continue unbroken. We aren’t just one thing, good or bad. This book has no absolutes. Instead, there is an array of moments when decisions were made out of necessity or survival, and beneath that, survival was a deep love and connection between O’Sullivan and her parents. O’Sullivan pushes us past the addiction and the difficult moments and forces us to confront the humanity of the people at the core of this story. The book delivers a powerful message to society about how we treat those who struggle with chronic addiction. She wants the reader to see them, and we do. Katriona's book is a must-read for anyone interested in education or social work, for anyone who works with children, for everyone. Ignore the housework, any and all responsibilities and read 'Poor'.

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O’Sullivan, K., McGrane, A., Long, S., Marshall, K., & MacLachlan, M. (2021) 'Using a systems thinking approach to understand teachers perceptions and use of assistive technology in the republic of Ireland'. Disability & Rehabilitation, . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] Those first few months in Trinity proper were hard. I felt lost, the psychology class was small which meant I couldn’t hide. I was sitting with middle-class kids who had got around 580 points in their Leaving Cert and I felt like a failure. Two years before I started my degree I had been working as the dinner lady in the Institute of Education.

Addiction, too, is seen as a personal failing rather than a complex issue. “There’s nobody I know who is addicted to drugs who planned that,” says O’Sullivan. “Especially for women with addiction, we do not provide enough support and services. My mother was judged so harshly, more than my dad, for being an addict. We need to look at how we moralise around addiction, and poverty.” participation is implicated in upward social mobility and the alleviation of poverty (Keane, 2016; HEA, 2015). Over the last 20 Without the opportunity to breathe in knowledge, to step slowly into this beautiful place, I would have never been able to succeed. It was the secure base from which I was able to navigate my educational path.An important contribution to our understanding of poverty and its impact' - Sinéad Gibney, Business Post Poor is the moving, inspirational and brave story of a seven year old girl who needed love and care and found it with her teachers. Of a teenager whose English teacher believed she was fantastic. Of a young mother who had a caring nurse who encouraged and supported her. Of a woman who becomes a doctor of psychology and works to increase diversity in education.