When I reached 14 there was no questions of staying on in school. It was expected that I would leave and get a job and I didn't have an option." Nowadays Anne O'Sullivan is a teacher with the KLEAR community education group based in Kilbarrack, Dublin, but as a school-leaver her ambitions were far removed from that.
"That's the way things were then and you didn't question it. Jobs were easily come by and I got the first job I applied for, in a furriers in South Anne Street. "I enjoyed the job, but I always had a sneaking regret that I never got to do my Leaving Cert and never had the opportunity to go on to the `tech' like some of my friends.
"By today's standards I married young. We had four children and I stayed at home and was fully occupied rearing my family. Then when I hit my mid-40s, I suddenly though: is this it? Surely there has to be something more?"
The "more" for Anne O'Sullivan was to join a creative writing group at KLEAR in 1983. "The experience blew my mind," she says. "The people at KLEAR were fantastic. They were completely tuned into the needs of women like me who were getting back out into the world having been at home for many years. The atmosphere was friendly, encouraging and informal and I immediately felt at home there.
"I joined the writing group, not because I had any illusions about my talent as a writer, but because I liked to scribble and it seemed like something I would enjoy. I made very good friends in that initial group and we have remained friends ever since. That's been one of the nicest things about the KLEAR experience," she says.
With the writing course under her belt, Anne O'Sullivan began sampling the other classes available at KLEAR. Eventually she had been through everything on offer except the Leaving Cert. "I'm really a very lazy person and while I love books and will read forever, I wasn't a bit enthusiastic about the idea of studying, so I studiously avoided the Leaving Cert class for as long as I could." However, with all other avenues exhausted, she embarked on English and history for the Leaving Cert and, having been successful, followed this with a one-year pre-university course at Pearse College in Crumlin, Dublin.
"I really had no intentions of going to college, " she stresses. "But I was attracted by the subjects they were offering and in 1990 I signed up for the course. I live in Coolock, so it was quite an effort to cross the city every day to go to the college. "The course was excellent. It was like first year at university, but not as intense, and it got you into the swing of writing essays and so on.
"As the year progressed I still had no thoughts of going to college and I didn't intend to apply for a place. But one of the teachers suggested that I should apply just in case I changed my mind. This is exactly what happened when I started thinking about what I was going to do next - as all my friends from the course were hoping to go on to college."
O'Sullivan went to an open day at Maynooth and was struck by the atmosphere of friendliness she met there. "It was a lovely campus, there were not too many students and it didn't feel too overwhelming," she says. She was subsequently accepted by Maynooth and graduated with a BA in 1994.
"I don't think I would have gone so easily had I been facing the ordeal alone," she says. "The fact of having friends from Pearse College made it much easier and far less intimidating. "Mature students are very supportive of each other. Everyone rallies 'round and helps each other out. "I'm not saying the course was easy. It was very hard work, and you wave goodbye to your social life for the three years and your house isn't as clean and tidy as you might like it to be and the family have to fend for themselves. But if you have their support, it's a great experience and I really enjoyed it."
Having finished the degree, she completed a diploma in adult education. "I had no plans to work or to teach, it was something I did for me," she says.
"To be honest I was looking forward to being at home again with all the time in the world to read all the books I hadn't been able to read while I was studying for the degree. My travelling time to Maynooth each day was four hours by bus or train and I was exhausted. I felt I needed time to recover."
But this was not to be. A call from KLEAR about a literature-appreciation class which needed a tutor turned O'Sullivan from student to teacher overnight. "I was completely taken aback to be asked and felt totally overwhelmed by the idea of teaching a class," she says. "But I was bullied and cajoled into doing it and I have thoroughly enjoyed the teaching experience."
O'Sullivan is now 62 and teaching six hours a week. "I certainly never thought I'd be where I am and doing what I'm doing at this point in my life and being paid for it! "I have always hated filling in forms where they ask for occupation and you have to put down `housewife'. Recently I was filling in a form and when it came to occupation I was able to put down 'teacher' - that gave me a terrific sense of satisfaction."
