‘I had to knuckle down to reach my college goals’
CATHAL O’HANLON didn’t do the Leaving Certificate, but is about to enter second year in University College Cork (UCC).
The 21-year-old, who left school after his Junior Cert to pursue a dream to be a professional soccer player, credits his time completing a post-Leaving Cert (PLC) for where he is today.
The young Cobh man, who went to school at the local Coláiste Mhuire, set off to play for Charlton Athletic FC in London.
Challenges presented by injuries meant that his soccer ambitions didn’t work out the way he had hoped and, ultimately, he came home.
Cathal returned to education, first signing up for a journalism course in Coláiste Stiofán Naofa, a college of further education in Cork. But he says that having just returned from England, he wasn’t in the correct frame of mind and struggled. Soccer was also still central to his life playing with Cork City Under-19s.
But he had learned a lot about life from his setbacks in soccer and took it on the chin and moved on, saying he believes that sometimes “you have to go backwards to go forwards”.
He embarked on another course in Coláiste Stiofán Naofa, the following September, a Level 6 FETAC in Heritage and Culture. This time he engaged much more and found it really interesting. He did so well that he achieved nine distinctions, a place on the BA degree programme in UCC along with a prized Quercus sports scholarship.
“In my first year at Coláiste Stiofán Naofa, UCC had offered me the sports scholarship but when I didn’t get high enough grades, I couldn’t take my place. I knuckled down and luckily they deferred the place.”
During his first year at UCC, Cathal studied psychology, philosophy, sociology and archaeology and hopes to focus on psychology and sociology when he returns to second year next month.
He still has ambitions as a goalkeeper and has already helped UCC to win the Collingwood Cup.
Cathal says his life in university is all about time management and while it sometimes proves tough, he manages to keep a necessary balance between his studies and football training.
The scholarship has also greatly motivated him and gives him plenty of incentive to keep up good grades: “If I mess up they won’t give me the scholarship for a repeat year. gets the most out of you,” he says.