An unflinchingly honest account of Katriona O’Sullivan’s life growing up and her journey through education. Searingly honest. Thought provoking. And a book that anyone who has an interest in supporting others should read.
Poor evokes ideas of going without financially. But you can be poor in so many ways. O’Sullivan explores the emotional poverty she experiences growing up as the middle of five children in a home where both parents are addicts. The precariousness of their existence and the way they were judged for not having things that others did is sobering. The account of her rape by a family friend is disturbing. But what hit hardest was the way she describes the teachers she had at this time: those that saw potential and worth and fostered it, and those that did all they could to break her.
As O’Sullivan describes her experience of being a teenage mother and going to Dublin to try and better herself, it was clear that education would play a huge part in her story.
Inspiring in many ways, but a damning indictment of our modern world. A must-read.