Children from poorer families are not allowed to do Transition Year in some schools. 

Author Katriona O’Sullivan’s younger son is going into TY next year and the school has organised a four day trip to Italy. 

Dr O’Sullivan said she was “quite shocked” that the total cost of the trip is €750 and considers herself lucky she can afford it. 

“He said, ‘Mam, the kids who can’t afford it are usually the naughty ones who don’t do transition year,’” she told Lunchtime Live.

“I was like, ‘What?’ 

“The fact that he knew that shocked me; it was also the fact that there was this bias in selection in schools around who gets to do transition year was also a further thing that I was shocked around.”

Dr O’Sullivan grew up in poverty in an Irish diaspora family in Britain and wrote about her childhood in her memoir Poor. 

I grew up in Birmingham, born to Irish parents who loved drugs more than me, I had a baby at 16,was homeless & helpless...I am now an award winning academic-grants worth millions, publications,a loving family & a full heart!

This is my thank you to the people who saved me! https://t.co/i4DkOPfybg

— Katriona O'Sullivan (@katrionaos) February 10, 2023

Although she now works as an academic at Trinity College, she has never forgotten what it is like to go without. 

“This idea that some kids get to do Transition Year and some kids don’t and it’s based on behaviour, that really upset me,” she said. 

“I know that happens but just to hear my own child say it in such a blasé way, it just made me realise how wrong it is.” 

Some schools interview kids for TY places. 

Dr O’Sullivan said she is aware of one woman who has had to take out a loan to pay for her child’s TY trip. 

Overall, she believes schools need to do more to make the year more inclusive. 

“Across schools, there’s different ways of selecting students for TY,” she said. 

“In some schools, it’s mandatory for everybody. 

“I would encourage all the schools to do TY or none of the schools should do it.”

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Main image: Teenagers are seen on their way to school in Dublin. Picture by: Rollingnews.ie