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Poor: Grit, courage, and the life-changing value of self-belief

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Having somebody like me in there was just pivotal”, she explains. “If you don’t see people like you, you’re never going to aspire to it”. Being poor effects everything you do and everything you are. Thinking of poverty, we picture barefoot children in rags on the street but for me poor was also a feeling like I had no worth. It was poverty of mind, poverty of stimulation, poverty of safety and poverty of relationships. Being poor controls how you see yourself, how you trust and speak, how you see the world and how you dream" or What I found most refreshing was that Katriona didn’t claw her way out of her council estate with the aim of becoming a middle class suburban housewife. Moving, funny, brave and original - just like the author ... absolutely incredible' - Roísín Ingle, Irish Times Women's Podcast Poor is not only Katriona's story, but is also her impassioned argument for the importance of looking out for our kids' futures. Of giving them hope, practical support and meaningful opportunities.

For most of my life I felt like I was at the bottom of a trench. The shame of poverty made me feel like I was wading through deep water alone., but the crucial thing I have learned while writing my story is that in tough times I was being carried. I didn't climb out the trench myself. I was pulled out. Of course I worked hard but without the network of community groups and government schemes, the funding, the trinity access programme, the support offered from colleagues and the state and friends there is not a chance I would have made it af all" But there were also the people – children, and adults, too – who were repelled by poverty. “Poverty has layers. We were probably the most extreme – no food, not washed, nits. Kids don’t want to play with you, so it’s horrible because not only are you suffering at home, I was also going to school and being on the outside. Sometimes, teachers would treat me that way as well, or expect me to perform in a way that was just beyond me because of what was going on at home.” Although she wouldn’t necessarily have classed herself as an addict – “I sometimes think: ‘Was it bad enough for me to own the same space that my parents did?’” – she could see the way she was going, and she wanted to stop. “I didn’t want that for my son, and that was horrific. I remember waking up to the fact, living in Birmingham in this council house, no carpet on the floor. I used to buy electric and gas keys on a Monday, and by Friday, it was gone, so it was cold. I remember thinking: ‘I am her, I’m my mam, and this beautiful boy deserves better.” The individual, she says, “is small in the decisions of their life, and we don’t like that because it suggests we’re powerless. But choice is a myth that’s perpetuated by the middle classes – only a few people really can choose.” One of the most important books I have ever read ... a beautiful telling of determination despite the odds' - Lynn Ruane, Irish TimesAt it’s core this is a cautionary tale about the effects of austerity, the class system in the UK and the horrifying generational impact of addiction.

Full of insight into a life lived right up against the boundaries placed on it by poverty . . . so important . . . we'd highly recommend Fi Glover, Off Air with Jane and Fi, Times Radio Katriona speaks about the people in education and social care setting who helped her, and those who failed her. I cried when reading about her early childhood and the abuse she suffered. I cried when I read about her older brother coming home from work to find her and her siblings, hungry, with not a parent to be seen. Some chapters are truly harrowing. I found myself with a pain in my chest and thinking of that little seven year old and her brothers and sister long after I'd finished reading. This book is a compelling read that proves both difficult to put down and challenging to read. Katriona O'Sullivan pours her heart out to the reader, using her memoir as a cathartic medium to elucidate and comprehend her upbringing and early life, enabling her to move forward and embrace her own life to the best of her abilities. From an educational and policy perspective, it is essential to grasp the hardships some individuals face and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles they encounter. It was 2011 when I first met the now-published author Katriona O’Sullivan. She stood at the top of the lecture hall in Trinity College Dublin in a beige cardigan down to her knees, blue denim jeans and a pair of runners. She spoke about addiction, and I couldn’t quite tell if she had an accent like mine because of her English twang. I read poor in one sitting ... I found it so complelling. An amazing story ... moving, uplifting, brave, heroic ' - Nuala McGovern, Woman's Hour, BBCKatriona was born in Coventry to Irish parents. She grew up in dire poverty, became a mother at fifteen and ended up homeless. Moving to her father's native Dublin, Katriona was hopeful that a change of place would bring positive changes to her life. As she says herself, it turned out that "nothing would change in Dublin......I had come to Dublin and to change my life and simply replicated it". At the time, the young mother was raising her young son alone all the while daring to hope her life might eventually take a different turn.

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