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I work with young people who surprise me every day. Life at the Cork Life Centre is never boring. 92% of these are good surprises. And the 8% can lead to good things too if you are open to the fact that the difficult things we go through together make us stronger, better, more ready … Continue reading We Walk with Warriors

  We’ve tried to prepare young people for the reality that they might go to Oberstown. We’ve sat in court and seen young people sentenced or remanded there. We have written letters to Oberstown. We have visited young people there. But today we had our first visitor from Oberstown…. Its Director Pat Bergin. Pat is … Continue reading A Visitor from Oberstown

Indeed yes, this is a line from a saccharine sweet rom-com which I best now reference(‘The Wedding Date’) But this thought has been bouncing around my head as I reflect on 2018-another amazing year working with young people and being privileged enough to share their journeys. I think of all the incredible achievements of our … Continue reading I think I’d miss you even if we’d never met…..

  Final Musing on Edmund Rice Week: Visit by Ibrahim Halawa 11/05/2018 The above title is taken from the extraordinary ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor E Frankl-it connects so much with Ibrahim’s story I can’t stop thinking about it as he speaks to us and I am to learn it is amongst the books … Continue reading ‘When we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves’

More Musings from Edmund Rice Week at the Cork Life Centre 10/05/2018 I'm at the train station at the entry/exit barriers doing that socially awkward dance. You know it, the one you do when you’re meeting someone off a train and you know what they look like but they couldn’t pick you out of a … Continue reading John is the Business

Musings from Edmund Rice Week @ the Cork Life Centre 08/05/2018 We had a more than interesting discussion today with Professor Áine Hyland about educational equality- who better to take a master class with than the woman who has spent most of her life advocating for children’s educational rights! Eloquently  and succinctly in less than … Continue reading ‘Equality isn’t achieved by treating everybody the same’

Delighted to see enduring inequalities in our education system highlighted in the Evening Echo recently(27.12.2017) by journalist Grainne McGuinness and to be featured in the article along with Dr. Tom Cavanagh a huge supporter and advocate for educational opportunities for all.   Dr Tom Cavanagh speaking at the official opening of the newly refurbished Dochas … Continue reading Early education vital in tackling city’s inequality

  At the Cork Life Centre we spent the most extraordinary day yesterday sitting with our young people as they opened results most had never dreamed of achieving. Most of these young people in fact at many stages had given up on the idea that they would ever complete Leaving Certificate due to their life … Continue reading The Leaving Cert By Numbers

  I was at work yesterday pottering around waiting on the arrival of a potential volunteer  I was meeting(something I am always hoping to be doing at this time of the year!) I spotted quite by chance out of the corner of a tired eye a brown envelope that had landed beneath the letterbox.  This … Continue reading The Magic of Volunteering

Roisin Burke(As featured on the Evening Echo 08.06.2017) Delighted to share this article demonstrating the strength, resilience and talent of our young people. MORE than 6,000 students are taking the Leaving Certificate exams and among them will be a number of students from the Cork Life Centre. Cork Life Centre is an organisation who works … Continue reading Local teens overcome obstacles with Cork Life Centre