Pharmacist Ultan Molloy tells Theresa Judge why he chose to spend two years studying traditional music
Ultan Molloy smiles in surprise at the suggestion that at 29, he is a bit on the young side to be changing his life, as he was beginning to feel that he was not so young anymore. Having all but abandoned pharmacy for traditional music after only a few years working in the potentially lucrative career, his story is an interesting one for anybody agonising over the choice of third-level courses.
After leaving school he trained as a pharmacist at the University of London, even completing a master's degree in biopharmacy. One can imagine satisfied parents at home in Castlebar, Co Mayo thinking their son was well set up for life.
That is, until a love of traditional music pulled him away to the University of Limerick where he has just completed a master's degree in traditional Irish music performance.
So why did he choose to do pharmacy in the first place?
"I don't know - I wasn't really thinking to be honest. I did a lot of science subjects at school, it seemed like a logical move - you know a good job, and the money is supposed to be good. I thought I'd thought it through, and that I had it all sussed out, until I actually came out the far end and started working in it - you know the reality turned out to be different."
He has worked as a hospital pharmacist in London, advising doctors on prescriptions, and in community pharmacy in Ireland and abroad.
He points out the positive aspects of working in community pharmacies, for example, the social interactions with fellow workers and customers, but there are also aspects that didn't appeal to him.
He found it difficult not to feel he was on "a production line", handing out prescriptions. In addition, he could not apply much of his scientific knowledge because ultimately the decision about what to prescribe is a clinical one taken by a doctor with a background knowledge of the patient.
Working in pharmacies also alerted him to some worrying trends, like the number of people who regularly buy codeine-containing painkillers, which are addictive. He says he reached the conclusion that all he could do was inform people of the dangers and encourage them to take responsibility for their own health.
It's not surprising that he has difficulties when he tries to compare working as a pharmacist with playing music.
"Playing music with other people is a deeply moving experience - you're sharing a musical connection with people, you're tapping into some place in yourself musically - that couldn't be any more different to selling Nurofen over the counter."
He had started playing classical flute at age 12 and had progressed through to grade eight before giving it up at 17. His love of traditional music was only awakened some three or four years later when he had a summer job as a beachguard on Achill Island.
When he first started joining sessions in local pubs he chose to play guitar "strumming away with three chords" but after some time managed to borrow a traditional flute and set about getting lessons.
Since then he's been developing his playing, learning more tunes. "I don't think I'll ever be finished, that I'll ever know everything I want to know - it's always changing."
The past two years at the University of Limerick allowed him not only to concentrate on the flute, getting master classes from specialist tutors, but also to return to the guitar. He says he doesn't need to use the skill he learned as a teenager to read sheet music, as all the tunes he learns these days are by ear.
He has no regrets about doing pharmacy, as it "opened a lot of doors" for him, not least by allowing him to earn enough money to be able to spend two years studying music at the University of Limerick.
He's conscious that a decision to move away from pharmacy will have implications for his life in practical ways. Particularly in Ireland today, there is pressure to buy a house and have a good income, but he's trying to resist the stigma that playing music is not a real job.
And he's just hoping that having the option of going back working as a locum won't prove a double-edged sword in preventing him from applying himself to a music career.
He's hoping to make a recording and to tour abroad as there is a "limited market" for traditional music in Ireland and there are many established and up and coming musicians touring. He's conscious that trying to make a living from playing sessions would be difficult.
He wonders if his choice may be linked to "a romantic idea about the whole music thing", but at the moment the thought of "buying a pharmacy and putting in the hours" while it might be "the logical thing to do", sounds to him like a major compromise that he's not prepared to make at this stage.
He says it's difficult to explain how important music is to him. "I can't describe it to be honest. I don't know what I'd be like without it - I'd say it's keeping me sane."