`I'll never forget walking through the gates of Trinity on the first day.It was magical'

When her mother died, Marie Greene was just 15 years old. Being the eldest of five with a baby sister of two, the role of surrogate mother naturally fell to her. "It seems inconceivable in today's world that I was only told how ill my mother was two days before she died. But that's the way things were done then. I suppose I was hoping she would get better," she says.

She stayed in school and did the Leaving Cert but her plans to do nursing had to be shelved. "You had to live in during the first year's training and there was no way I could do that with younger members of the family to care for."

Gifted with the needle, Greene exchanged plans for nursing for a career in dress design. She studied at the Grafton Academy and went into industry working first as an assistant designer in a factory making children's clothes. She was then offered a part-time job teaching at the Grafton Academy and she also set up her own small design business specialising in weddings and evening clothes.

"I got married at 23 having met my husband five years earlier and gave up work 10 days before my daughter was born," she says. "At the time it was the norm for a woman to give up her job so I did it, but a bit reluctantly.

"Nevertheless, I enjoyed being at home with the children and I kept my hand in doing the odd wedding or making something for a special occasion for one of the family. That said, I found it difficult to work from home because it's quite intrusive having people calling for fittings.

"Eventually I phased it out not least because I needed time for my second child who was a premature baby and had a hearing impairment as a result.

"Besides, whenever I thought about returning to work, I wasn't at all sure that I wanted to go back to the same thing. I always felt there was something else inside me waiting to be discovered."

Even with a young family Greene made a point of doing an extramural course at UCD each winter. "That was my night out," she says, "and I did everything from psychology to drug addiction as it was called in those days. I think I always had a hankering to try my hand at something academic but I had no idea what it should be or how to go about getting into college.

"Then I heard a group of women talking on the radio one morning about going back to school and what this had done for their self-esteem and I decided that I wouldn't mind having a go at maths - I'd always enjoyed maths at school.

"When I discovered there was an assessment to get into the class I chickened out but my friend had heard about the adult group, KLEAR, in Kilbarrack and we went along there and joined the maths class and the writing group."

At first, Greene didn't like the idea of the writing group because it reminded her of having to do compositions at school. "But I have to say it turned out to be fantastic," she says. "We all wrote about our life experiences. For me this meant writing about my childhood and the experience of losing my mother, about having a premature baby and about adoption because we had adopted a little boy a number of years earlier.

"I found the writing very healing and therapeutic. It was an incredible group. The people in it were just waiting to blossom and I think every one of the 17 has gone on to greater things."

While Greene's husband was away on a four-month management training course at Harvard, she made up her mind to try for a place in college. "I was at home with four children aged between four and 14 and I thought how lucky he was to have the freedom to go and do something like that.

"That was the turning point. I decided I wanted to do something for me too and that when he came back it was my turn. I had been with KLEAR for about three years at that stage and, by then, I knew that it was the social sciences which interested me most."

Greene was offered one of the handful of places for mature students at Trinity. Being called for interview and getting a place gave her a tremendous sense of achievement. "I'll never forget walking through the gates on the first day. It was a magical feeling.

"But little did I realise the mammoth task I was facing. I hadn't studied since the Leaving Cert and I found the first few months very stressful as I tried to be wife, mother and student.

"My husband and children were great, although there was some opposition from my extended family to my going to college. But I still put my kids first. I was always there when they came home and I still went to all the meetings at school and took them to their different activities."

She usually started studying at 9.30 p.m. and studied into the early hours. "It was some challenge to get myself and four kids organised and out and still be in Trinity by 9 a.m. In my final two years I had late afternoon lectures but by then my daughter was also in college and we used to juggle things so as one or other of us would be there for the boys and dinner would be on the table. My daughter was really great once she got over the embarrassment of her mother going to college!"

Despite loving college life and settling down to a study routine, Greene failed her first year exams by a slim margin. "I was devastated - but I wasn't prepared to give up. In retrospect having to repeat was very good for me because I learnt so much about study techniques and exam skills in the process.

"Anyone thinking of going to college who has been away from the books for a long time should at least do one subject in the Leaving Cert the year before, preferably English or history where you have to do a lot of reading as preparation. I also suggest that people should do a word processing course so they can type their own essays. I couldn't type so my aunt used to type for me on an old manual typewriter - I'd be handwriting the last page and she'd be just a page behind."

Green thoroughly enjoyed going to college. "There were four mature students in my class and we operated as a support system for each other. We're still good friends and, although we had to work hard, we still had plenty of fun. We even went to Trinity Ball in our last year and didn't come home until 10 a.m. like all the youngsters!"

Marie Greene graduated in February 1991 and was employed at once in locum positions with various hospitals. She also worked as a locum with St Michael's House and in Community Care before taking a permanent job with St Michael's House in 1993.

She now works a three-day week and her main job is to act as the link between the care unit and client families. Most recently she has been closely involved in setting up a new respite care system for the area. "I really feel I have found my niche," she says.