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.