21/04/2026
Story time.
I’ve been paying taxes since 1995 — but I was working long before that.
My earliest memories are at 6 or 7 years old, stocking shelves, polishing glasses in our off-licence, and helping my dad at the races and property. That work ethic carried through school holidays and weekends.
After school, I did the post.
Then I worked behind counters, in retail, in property — selling homes and renting them out.
Getting a job in Shindig in Tralee and my jobs in the other businesses was the making of me. Those years shaped everything.
In 2002, maternity leave was just 4 months.
I went back to work full-time with a 3-month-old baby.
Thankfully, he had incredible people caring for him — but it was never easy.
When he turned 9, I realised I was missing too much of his life.
By then, my fertility was clearly gone — but I wasn’t a “traditional patient” in Catholic Ireland, so I received no real medical support.
After the 2009–2010 crash, I went onto a scheme (X’s and O’s) — working part-time while my stamps covered two days, because the business I worked for was struggling to keep 10 staff afloat.
At the same time, I ran art classes three days a week just to make ends meet — mortgage, car, food.
My social life? It existed — but only on the weekends my son was with his dad.
I missed my friends in Australia deeply.
In 2011, I made a decision:
I wanted more time with my son.
So while still working, I joined the Start Your Own Business programme and began winding down a 10-year career.
I left that June.
The week before Christmas, I got a letter saying my stamps were ending.
At 32, I heard the words:
“Can’t your parents help you?”
That was my first real experience of the system.
I learned the hard way that stamps only backdate two years.
I was offered the self-employment payment — and that’s where everything changed.
People are quick to judge without knowing the full story.
I could no longer afford private healthcare.
I stopped paying it — believing what we’re told: that the public system is equal.
It’s not.
And that’s when I started speaking out —
first to TDs,
then online,
and now through my podcast.
This isn’t just a story.
It’s lived experience.
