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

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There's a very striking, moving scene early on in the book and it was a real take-home point from the book for me. A kindly teacher, Mrs Arkinson, took an interest in Katriona from a very young age and recognised the fact that Katriona came from a home where she was utterly neglected. Mrs Arkinson gave Katriona clean underwear and clothes, and a towel, and showed the young girl how to wash herself. Katriona speaks about the people in education and social care setting who helped her, and those who failed her. I cried when reading about her early childhood and the abuse she suffered. I cried when I read about her older brother coming home from work to find her and her siblings, hungry, with not a parent to be seen. Some chapters are truly harrowing. I found myself with a pain in my chest and thinking of that little seven year old and her brothers and sister long after I'd finished reading. For the people who can’t recover from that, it is no surprise that patterns repeat themselves. Even for O’Sullivan, who by any measure is a huge success – happily married with three children, an impressive research career, an expert on access to education, and one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet – that voice is still there, but quieter now. “There will always be a small part of me that just wants to be loved by my parents,” she says, and she apologises for the tears that spring to her eyes. “I think we carry our childhood with us. That’s the long-lasting residue from mine.” Katriona survives because she met a few good people along life’s path that turn out to be pivotal. These people saw her love for learning and inspired her but it was down to Katriona 100% to walk a different path to the one being modelled by her parents and maintained by the system.

Raised by addicts, abused, neglected, broke: how Katriona O

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. At it’s core this is a cautionary tale about the effects of austerity, the class system in the UK and the horrifying generational impact of addiction.In a lecture room at Ireland’s most elite university, a woman in a hoodie and jeans, her hair in a messy bun, was sorting out some chairs. A student came in and told her that she couldn’t clean in there because a class was about to start. “I know,” the woman told her. “I’m teaching it.” It is one of my favourite moments in Dr Katriona O’Sullivan’s new memoir, not just for the delicious awkwardness, but because, despite O’Sullivan’s path from virtually unimaginable poverty and trauma to a top-level education, it exposes the truth about whom we believe those institutions are really for. Coming from poverty dreams aren't sky high, most of the time they barely go past the ceiling of a council house. And being 'better' meant having a job or not selling drugs Poor is this story, the story of how a once-bright student found herself on the wrong path and how, through sheer grit, determination and bravery, turned her life around thanks to an unexpected encounter with the Trinity Access Programme as an adult.

Books UK Poor - Penguin Books UK

We love a rags-to-riches story, and we love to see someone triumph through sheer determination. But the story is rarely that simple. My story isn't, anyway.'The @kildarereadersfestival hosted a talk with Katriona last night @riverbankartscentreie and she spoke about her book, her life now and her family. One take-home point from that for me was that children in poverty need more than just 'hard work' to make their way out into a better life. What use is hard work at school if you're not eating dinner at home? What use is 'hard work' if your parents' main priority at that time is drugs or alcohol? What use is 'hard work' if no one cares enough to keep you clean and wash your clothes?

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

Amazing read by an amazing woman. Some parts were absolutely gut-wrenching; really brought a tear to my eye. The fortitude she had to get through what she did amazed me, and to get to where she is today even more so. However, as Katriona herself points out, she didn't make it out alone, there were numerous people along the way who helped her up, as well as programmes and social investment schemes that paved the way. Now all those schemes are gone at a time when we need them more than ever. There must be so many like her out there, struggling with abuse, addiction, terrible parents, with no-one to see them as they really are. But there were also the people – children, and adults, too – who were repelled by poverty. “Poverty has layers. We were probably the most extreme – no food, not washed, nits. Kids don’t want to play with you, so it’s horrible because not only are you suffering at home, I was also going to school and being on the outside. Sometimes, teachers would treat me that way as well, or expect me to perform in a way that was just beyond me because of what was going on at home.”When the letter arrived offering a place on the access programme my dad got it framed. I felt happy, sad, scared and hopeful. But who would help me, who would look after my son? My friends were supportive and one of them told me about the Vinnies (St Vincent DePaul) – a group who could help people like me. I called the number, trying to explain without sounding desperate. They came over and were kind. A little posh, but they seemed genuine. 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. However, let’s not forget hard work. Katrina was a single mother, studying, working and still trying to hold her family together. This lady deserves our utmost respect. It brings to the forefront the struggles faced by those suffering from poverty and the services that are just not available to those in need anymore. As she says after the financial crash these services were the first to go and the lower classes were the worst affected.

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

The book helped. She likes herself now. “I think I’ve always liked myself, though. What’s really sad about growing up is that I can clearly remember being a young girl, alive to the world, inquisitive and bright, like all kids are but, unfortunately, I was born in this community where I wasn’t given an opportunity to flourish.” She feels now, nearly four decades on, closer to that girl, before the weight of neglect, predatory men, fear and low expectations crushed her. “Like, I’m alive again.”

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This book is a compelling read that proves both difficult to put down and challenging to read. Katriona O'Sullivan pours her heart out to the reader, using her memoir as a cathartic medium to elucidate and comprehend her upbringing and early life, enabling her to move forward and embrace her own life to the best of her abilities. From an educational and policy perspective, it is essential to grasp the hardships some individuals face and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles they encounter. 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. Most of the time being poor felt like a sodden blanket which was lying heavy across my shoulders dragging me down into dark waters" It takes a special person to see beyond the wrongs that one has endured and then use one’s wounds as the basis to create something big. As you follow the story beyond O’Sullivan’s early years, she keeps doing big things: overcoming big hurdles and traumas, achieving huge dreams, and creating changes and challenges to the status quo. I think O’Sullivan would have made it anyway, but you can’t ignore the moments along the way that helped. Growing up in a working class community in Coventry to Irish parents, Katriona O'Sullivan dealt with far more trauma and poverty than any child should ever know. In her book Poor, Katriona speaks about her hardship growing up as a child of parents who were drug addicts, and how ofttimes it was school and kind teachers that first taught her that she deserved more than what she had, and instilled a love of learning and education within her.