It’s amazing working in an animal shelter, but you do have to guard yourself a little otherwise you’d develop a kind of trauma. There are no animals here that don’t deserve love and it’s so sad to see them being treated cruelly or abandoned. I shield myself a little from knowing the details because I’m the type of person who cries at the news. We’re lucky to have some absolute heroes working on the front line.
My mother and grandmother were both nurses and I always knew I would never become a nurse because I’m too soft. I’d end up taking people home with me. I’m an architect by profession. I qualified from Bolton Street [now TU Dublin] and, when I started there in the late 1980s, the class of 40 students was half male and half female for the first time in the history of the degree programme. It was really notable then that more women were moving into the construction industry and it was needed.
I was an associate at Cooney Architects when the construction industry crashed. There had been talk of me becoming a director, but then I started having to let people go whom I’d hired, and eventually it was time for me and the other associates to go. Most of my peers left Ireland to work in Canada, the Middle East or Australia, but my mum was quite elderly at this stage – my dad had passed away in 2000 – and it didn’t feel right to emigrate, to follow architecture to another country. So I stayed and reinvented my career.
I had been involved in event management as a student, organising exhibitions, lectures and music and social events, and I’d kept it up as a hobby while I was an architect. I get bored easily, I’m curious and I love meeting people, so I managed to morph my hobby into a career path when there was no work for architects in Ireland. Everything I learned when I was studying to be an architect, I’ve brought to the roles I’ve had since. The training is so broad-ranging – it encompasses design, psychology, project management, contract administration, science, and it’s also very craft-based.
I completed a diploma in sound engineering, I did stage management, I worked at a variety of music festivals and I got into photography before getting a job at Grouse Lodge recording studios in Westmeath in 2012. It was kind of my dream job, but then my mam developed Alzheimer’s and that was a crossroads for me. I was too far away from her in Westmeath so I left to take over her care, thinking it would be for six months. It ended up being 10 years and I would do it again. It was a very intense time and it changed me as a person and my priorities.
During that time, I began volunteering at Barretstown. When the role of community fundraising and events manager came up, I applied and they took a punt on me. I had to go through all of the hoops to get the job as I didn’t have a background in the charity sector, but they have an amazing chief executive there and she took a chance on me and it paid off. I couldn’t have left Barretstown for anywhere less than the DSPCA; it’s so close to my heart.
While I was living with my mam during a Covid lockdown, I fostered an amazing lurcher called Meg. She was so intuitively gentle with Mam, never barking in the house and never getting under her feet. When Mam would fall into looped questioning, Meg would almost sense it and hop up on the sofa beside her. Mam never remembered Meg’s name – or my name a lot of the time – but she would put her hand on Meg and say: ‘Ah, there you are’, and it snapped her out of it.
It’s difficult to watch animals that have gone through treatment and are ready to go to a home still waiting to find one
I could see first-hand the effect of an animal on my mother’s brain so I couldn’t give Meg back and I adopted her. I think dogs are drawn to children and vintage people, as I call them, because they don’t have any agenda. Animals’ hearts are so straightforward. They will love unconditionally. We almost don’t deserve them.
In Ireland we have such a history of interaction with animals, both wild and domesticated, and agricultural. There’s definitely a culture of caring for animals here, I think. I see wonderful pet owners and animal companions in the shelter and outside of it, and we have some incredible people who come and volunteer here weekly.
Christmas is a super busy time at the shelter and it’s an anxious time. Christmas is so associated with family and home life, and everybody here wants to see all of the animals in a family setting. It’s difficult to watch animals that have gone through treatment and are ready to go to a home still waiting to find one. We have a foster programme, and people can apply to foster short-term over Christmas. The animal gets to experience being part of a family and the foster parents can provide feedback on how that pet behaves in a family setting. It really helps to inform the animal’s future adoption.
We’re under huge pressure to fundraise and to keep the gates open, so we’re running an initiative, Take a Dip for the DSPCA, throughout December to raise funds. You can do a sea swim, an ice-bucket challenge or a swim in your local pool – whatever suits you. We talk a lot these days about offsetting our carbon footprint, but I think at this time of year especially, we need to offset our human footprint – our self-indulgence – by trying to be good humans and think of others outside of ourselves, like the voiceless animals at the shelter.
In conversation with Marie Kelly. This interview, part of a series, has been edited for clarity and length. The DSPCA is part of the We Act campaign, a movement that celebrates the impact of Ireland’s charities and community groups. This Christmas, they are asking people to support volunteers and charities nationwide so they can continue their work throughout the year. Visit weact.ie for more details
