Dum dum dum, dum dum dum, dum dum dum. The knocking gets faster and louder and drowns everything else out. Dum dum dum is the sound of hunger and it especially interferes with learning.

Nothing can be heard except the sound of a child’s stomach rumbling, grumbling, demanding to be fed. I know the sound well. During my teaching life, I heard it often.

Most of the time, as a home economics teacher, I was in the happy position of being able to silence those sounds.

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I always had something I could offer a hungry child.

Dr Katriona O’Sullivan is a professor of psychology, the author of Poor, and her new book Hungry, has just been released. She was interviewed by Deirdre O’Shaughnessy in St Luke’s in Cork. My friend Breda invited me along.

Making a difference

We battled match traffic to get a parking place near the railway station in Cork city. We huffed and puffed to climb up Grattan Hill to the venue. Early on in the interview, Katriona reminded us that dum, dum, dum is the sound of hunger, as she thumped the microphone.

She sits on the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) advisory committee. There she can make a difference.

Her mantra is that many people know that children live in poverty. They have no appropriate clothes and have no way of stopping the dum, dum, dum in their bellies. Yet, not enough people actually do something about it.

Throughout Katriona’s book Poor she describes being impoverished in the most graphic, raw ways. For her and her siblings – whose parents were chronic drug users – life was a complete rollercoaster. Sometimes their mother and father were sober and clean. Those times were rare, but they offered the children a glimpse of what normal family life might look like.

Yet, deep down her resilience never faltered, even after a teenage pregnancy and giving birth to a son at age 16. Her description of being taken into care at different junctures gives us a small window into what the system is like

For the most part though, their young lives were filled with hunger, fear and depraved behaviour. Sexual abuse at the age of seven robbed Katriona of a time when she was “free and could do cartwheels showing her knickers”. After that, her life was utterly changed, her confidence crushed.

Yet, deep down her resilience never faltered, even after a teenage pregnancy and giving birth to a son at age 16. Her description of being taken into care at different junctures gives us a small window into what the system is like. It was safety and an end to hunger, but it fell short of being a long-term solution.

Katriona was returned to her family for more of the same. How she has become the successful person that she is with an honours PhD in psychology is phenomenal. It makes you wonder how many children slip through the system.

The interview

Throughout her interview, Katriona used strong, sometime shocking, language to deliver her narrative. The audience often responded with applause. Her message is very clear – women need to speak out for themselves on all subjects. Anyone who can must champion the cause of children who might be hungry.

Access programmes for third level education need to be simpler, more accessible and free.

I believe that good teachers make outcomes for all children better and exceptional teachers will guarantee that education is inclusive for all children, whatever their background.

Katriona says that she has written Hungry so that society will protect women and girls.

Her story is now being listened to, she is finally being heard.