It’snevertoolatetolearn
DUNDALK woman Frances Lynch-Kearney proves that it’s never too late to learn, having been awarded a Doctorate from the University of Ulster last year. The mother of two fulfilled what she calls ‘a simmering idea’ when she went back to education in her forties.
Born in St Clement’s Park, Frances lived in Cox’s Demesne and then Ashbrook, and went to school at Dun Lughaidh .
‘My mother was widowed at 33 with seven daughters, and although I had been offered a grant to go to University, I could not afford to go as I was needed at home — to contribute to the household.’
‘My well-meaning careers’ teacher reminded me that as my mother was a widow with a relatively large family, and irrespective of my academic ability, the chances of getting to University were slim,’ Frances recalls.
‘I remember thinking that someday return to education and get my degree.’
She went on to work in the ESB offices at Chapel Street for many years.
Fast forward to 2006 when she was living just across the border in Killeavy with her husband Eamon and two children. A leaflet about the Southern Regional College’s programme was dropped through her letterbox, becoming the catalyst to her returning to education.
She enrolled in the college’s a part-time Associate Bachelor’s degree programme in English and History, which would lead to a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) with Ulster University.
Before doing so, she discussed her return to education with my husband. ‘I assured myself that I would be able to balance family and work commitments with the time needed for reading, seminar presentations, assignments and exams,’ she says. ‘I told family and friends after I had completed the first year, and they all give me the thumbs up.’
However, beyond that, she didn’t broadcast the I will fact that she had returned to education.
‘Overall, I kept my studying very private. This was due to my own circumspection from bewildered or curt remarks as to why (at my age) I wanted to do a degree, and to my acute awareness that my family commitments had to come first and how I may have to leave or defer my studies should any crises arise.’
On the course itself, she was among like-minded students and thoroughly enjoyed the expe- rience, despite the dedication required and the prejudices which occasionally surface. Once she got her BA degree under her belt, her desire for learning continued and she embarked on a PhD on the American author Ernest Hemmingway.
‘For the four years of my BA degree, there was great camaraderie among the students; the class profile was mainly female and ranged in age from twenty to sixty,’ she says. ‘However, over the course duration the class size reduced from about forty to about fifteen — reflective of the many factors that can infringe on completing studies as a mature student.’
‘ The process required serious discipline, effective time management and a total belief that my work would contribute something new to knowledge,; she says. ‘I encountered some quite entrenched views as to why, as a mature woman, I would be bothered doing a BA, then comments on what would I gain from a PhD at my age? Ultimately, in my view, education is never wasted, it makes way for greater critical thinking and therefore greater understanding of others and their standpoints.’
The barriers which had prevented her from going to university as a seventeen year presented themselves in a different guise this time but she was able to surmount them,
‘As a mature student it was difficult trying to overcome the more subtle comments and innuendos that education was somehow beyond the realm of the mature female. In terms of my doctoral research, the isolation, discipline and balancing of family and work due to the intense nature of the doctoral research process was challenging.’
As she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Arts, she proudly accepted it as Frances Lynch-Kearney ‘as tribute to my decent and hard-working parents’. Frances certainly defies the stereotype that such academic work is the preserve of the young or the privileged.
During the course of her studies, she gained new confidence, travelled to the United States, guest lectured at New York Stage university on the invitation of Distinguished Professor H.R Stoneback (then President of the Hemingway Society), and presented conference papers in Venice, Kentucky, QUB, Trinity College, Dublin, and Ulster University. Her thesis was awarded a 2016 Ulster University Faculty of Arts Research prize. Now she is looking at the possibility of getting her thesis published and applying for post-doctoral research funding.