Top honour for former rail worker

Former train driver Owen Dinneen, UCC's graduate of the year, tells GRAINNE FALLERhow he put himself on track for a first-class honours degree

‘I WAS JUST sitting there, beads of sweat pouring down my face.” Owen Dinneen is recalling his very first maths lecture in UCC. “The lecturer was introducing himself and telling us what we’d be doing. He went on and on about how we’d have done most of the material last year in the Leaving Cert. He must have mentioned the Leaving Cert 10 or 15 times in the short time he was speaking.” Dinneen pauses. “Sure I didn’t have a Leaving Cert,” he says.

Four years after that first lecture, Dinneen, a former train driver, was named UCC graduate of the year – the first mature student ever to receive that honour. It had been a big week. “I had my 45th birthday, the graduate of the year ceremony, a Late Late Show appearance and then Ireland won against England in Twickenham. Not bad,” Dinneen smiles.

Not bad indeed, particularly for someone who had initially harboured few academic ambitions. “Even after I had been accepted into the university, there was a real feeling of looking over your shoulder wondering ‘When are they going to find me out?’, because you don’t quite believe you should be there,” he says.

He had left school after his Inter Cert. “I rebelled against school for some reason,” Dinneen says. “My brothers were very academically minded and I was anything but. I got out at the first available opportunity.”

After training and working as a chef for a number of years, he applied for a job with Iarnród Éireann. “My father had worked on the railways so it was a real childhood ambition,” Dinneen says. “I really loved it. I could have continued driving trains happily until I was 65.”

Fate had other plans, however. In April, 2004, when he was just 39 years-old, ill-health forced him to retire. Dinneen suddenly found himself at a complete loose end. “I had nothing to do,” he recalls. “I’d stay up until three or four in the morning watching crap on telly. I’d be in bed the following day until lunchtime. I’d collect my daughter, from school, help her with her homework, then I’d collect my wife from work and I’d have the dinner ready. I had completely lost my sense of purpose.”

For the sake of having something to occupy himself, Dinneen signed up to a further education business course at his son Paul’s school, Deerpark CBS. “I’d be ducking into classrooms if I saw Paul coming down the corridor,” he says. “I didn’t want to embarrass him.” Dinneen soon settled in, however, and to his mild surprise he “absolutely loved” the course. With the encouragement of his tutors, the idea of maybe continuing his studies began to take root.

With some help from people running his course, he applied for and got a place on a commerce degree in UCC. All the same, his confidence was still low. “I fully expected that it would take me eight years to finish the degree. I never in my life expected to go straight through,” he says.

Supports were invaluable. “The mature student office was great,” Dinneen says. “Maths was my biggest challenge without a doubt. I managed to get grinds through the office which pulled me through.” The mature student society was important for moral support. “It was just good to have someone who was going through something similar telling you ‘you’ll get there,’ from time to time when things got tough,” says Dinneen.

It also helped that on day one, he met fellow mature student Pat Horgan. “There were 250 or 300 people in the lecture but I spotted him, a fella of a similar age to myself, sitting at the front so I went down and sat beside him,” Dinneen says. “We’d come out of lectures and go for coffee and I’d say, ‘Pat, what in the name of Jesus was he on about?’ And Pat would say, ‘Well what did you understand?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I understood, hello, good morning and welcome and that’s about it.’ But then Pat would break it down and give it to me in English, and pennies would start to drop.”

He got involved in all aspects of college life from the mature students’ society to supporting the college rugby team and representing students on the board of UCC’s leisure complex, the Mardyke Arena. The social life was healthy.

“I’ve been invited to more 21st birthday parties than I can count,” Dinneen grins. “I bring a naggin of vodka, a bag of ice and a bottle of MiWadi orange as an offering, I stay for a drink and then I’ll make my excuses and head off, but it’s important to turn up if you’re invited.”

As he progressed through the degree, Dinneen was able to specialise in subjects that suited his strengths. “I dropped maths as soon as I could,” he says. “But I found third year to be the toughest academically by far.”

Overall though, he found that academic challenges were less of a potential stumbling block, to him and other mature students, than practical ones.

“You can make a list of things that will stop a mature student from getting through their degree,” he says. “Finance is at the top of the list – can you afford to go to college and still afford to pay your mortgage and your ESB bill and all that? Support from partner and family is next. If you don’t have that, you’re lost. At the very bottom of the list is academic ability. This is the one where if I can do it anyone can do it.”

His steady approach to study really began to pay dividends in fourth year. A combination of subjects that he had a flair for, and continuous assessment rather than major exams, meant that by the end of the year he was well on his way to getting first-class honours. “That was a great feeling,” he smiles.

The notification about graduate of the year – the most prestigious award that UCC can bestow upon one of its graduating students – came later.

It’s a prize that’s awarded each year to one student who has achieved outstanding academic results and who has contributed significantly to college life and spirit.

The €2,000 prize that came with the award will be spent on a family holiday to Florida. “The whole degree was a family effort,” Dinneen says. “It’s only right that we all get to enjoy the spoils.”

For now, he is tutoring further education students back in Deerpark CBS, the place where the whole adventure began. Further study may be on the cards. “I’d consider a master’s, or even going back and doing the Leaving Cert,” he says. “I’m not sure yet. I did the degree for myself, to prove that I could. We’ll see about what comes next.”