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Businesswoman completes her Leaving Cert after retirement
A 60-year-old Galway woman who left school at 14 – and always regretted not having an education – took her chance second time round. And now she is contemplating a life in college.
Rosaleen Rice from Kingshill in Upper Salthill decided to return to education after rearing her own family of five and retiring from work – starting off by doing one-to-one classes in Galway Adult Basic Education Service, then the Leaving Cert and more recently completing a course in NUI Galway – something she never dreamt that she could do.
BY CLARE McNALLY
“I am the person I am because of the road I have travelled,” says the woman who managed a hairdressing business before turning her hand to running a B&B.
Rosaleen has lived in Salthill all of her life. Seventh of eleven children, she grew up in a very busy household. Like many people of her generation, she was only 14 when she finished school, taking up the opportunity to train as an apprentice hairstylist.
She was a quick learner, acquiring new skills in styling, cutting and all aspects of hairdressing. At 19 she became manager.
“I always think my mother made a wise decision when she suggested I train as a hairdresser. I would have drowned in secondary school but when I started hairdressing, I came into my own. I became more confident and my self-esteem grew,” she says.
Rosaleen eventually came to own the business, helped in no small part by the fact that she married Michael Rice, the person who originally employed her to be manager!
Rosaleen and Michael went on to have five children together – three daughters and two sons. Although she’d left school with very little education and weak literacy, her own thirst for knowledge and her desire to support her children’s education motivated her to keep trying to improve her skills.
“I was self-taught and by working on my reading it improved. When my first child was born I introduced her to books at the age of six months. Through reading to her and to my other children, my own reading ability improved.”
Rosaleen decided to retire from hairdressing and closed her business after her fifth child was born. However she continued to work all her life, supporting her husband’s driving school business and then running her own B&B for 15 years. It was only when she retired that she decided to take her first step back to education.
“I lost my brother and sister in a short period of time and it made me reflect on my own life. I felt that if you have an issue in life you should really do something about it, rather than wait. I always wanted an education.
“My sister Anne Broderick was the driving force behind me returning to education after I shared my feelings about my lack of education with her. She had done the tutors’ course in Galway Adult Basic Education Service and suggested that I get in touch with them. She even made an appointment for me as I was quite nervous in taking that first step myself,” says Rosaleen.
And she knows she fell on her feet when she engaged with the Galway Adult Basic Education Service – people like Alison Jones, Carmel Glynn and Kieran Harrington, to name but a few.
“The first person I met was Alison Jones. I found her to be the most open and truly lovely lady. It was such a big step for me going back to education that I actually broke down and cried when I started talking to her. But she was so understanding and put me instantly at ease. She suggested that I start on one-to-one and that’s when I met Carmel Glynn,” says Rosaleen.
“Carmel is the most amazing person – we clicked from the moment we met. In fact we have become great friends. She gave me all the encouragement I needed. In the end, I started writing short stories and her reaction when I would read one of my stories was so moving and touching.
“She unlocked something and made me believe in myself. I was beginning to discover things about myself I hadn’t known I was capable of and I can’t thank her enough,” says Rosaleen.
It wasn’t long before Rosaleen was being encouraged to try some exams, sitting Junior Cert English and Maths in 2012 and the Leaving Cert in 2014. Naturally, one subject wasn’t enough!
“At the interview for the Leaving Cert course, it was suggested that I try all six subjects. So I did, I studied Irish, English, Business, Maths, History and Geography. It was a challenge and there were times I questioned myself as to whether I could do it.
“However, with the encouragement I received from my tutors, family and my husband Michael, who kept dropping me off and picking me up each day, it helped me to persevere with it.
“To have completed the course and receive my Leaving Cert results was far beyond anything I ever imagined. It’s the most amazing feeling,” says Rosaleen.
More recently, through more encouragement from her tutors, Rosaleen has completed an Access course in NUI Galway.
“For all the years of my life that I passed by NUI Galway, I never dreamt that, one day, I would be a student in the University, or that it would be possible for me to be like other students, using the library, handing in assignments, dealing with the pressure of deadlines. You feel such a huge sense of achievement,” she says.
She’s not entirely sure what’s next.
“I have applied through the CAO to do a degree. I’m toying with that at the moment. I’m not sure if it’s what I really want to do. But what I do know is that it’s a wonderful place to be, to have that option. If I ever in the past doubted myself, going back to education has made me realise that I have the ability,” says Rosaleen.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
