I grew up in council estate in Clondalkin. My mam raised the five of us mostly on her own. My dad left when I was nine and he was mostly absent.
We grew up poor. We didn’t know where our next meal was coming from, and I lived in my school uniform because I didn’t have much of my own clothes. But I just normalised that as a kid because you know nothing else.
My mam had two jobs just to try to keep us in school. She is the most resilient person I know. She is a Magdalene laundry survivor after becoming an orphan. She had five children by the age of 26, and then became a single mother. The strength of that woman is incalculable. And even though we were never rich by any means, my mam would always say we were rich in love.
Although we were poor, we did have the stability of home and community.
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