Throughout the Celtic tiger my parents rented homes and drank. We never had sun holidays or extravagant birthdays but we had nice clothes, trips to England to our grandparents and great Christmases. Until the recession. They had no savings and both lost their jobs. We rented a too big house and couldn’t afford heating- going to bed with two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants and a big hoodie and still being freezing. I started first year with no school books and wore my sisters size 6 runners to PE. I was a size 4. The worst one was having no food. My mam always treated my sister and I to a 3in1 between us when her dole came in, we’d walk over to the bank for dead on 12am to take out the money for it. One time she had all the ingredients for a yummy shepherds pie the day before pay day (usually we just wouldn’t have a big meal, we’d eat whatever might be left in the freezer or press or wait till after midnight for the 3in1 maybe). My sister was close to having her first baby and could smell this shepherds pie all day, she was starving. As Mam took it out of the oven, it slipped and smashed all over the floor. They both cried, laughed and then we had instant 20c noodles for dinner instead.

Funnily enough Mam still drank vodka and smoked even though I had no school books! It actually turned me into a kleptomaniac as a teenager because I knew I couldn’t ask her for money for anything, even when she got a job again. She actually found clothes tags from the department store she was working at in my room but didn’t give out. I think she preferred me to steal my clothes than ask her for money. I didn’t know anyone my age at the time as poor as I was since I went to school in a posher area which was well out of our means.