In my writing world, there are amazing people behind the scenes. Although we are well into January, I take this opportunity to wish all the people I work with at home, in school, in the Irish Farmers Journal and in Cope Foundation a very happy new year.

My column in any week has lots of people playing their part. To you all, I say thank you. To you, the readers, I say carpe diem, seize the day. That’s Julie and Tim’s particular quote.

This is a good frame of mind in which to begin 2016. In our family, we all strive to make a difference to other people’s lives. That sometimes means pushing the boat out and ploughing the lonely furrow. For 2016, we will be focusing on surrounding ourselves with positive people. That is the only way to guarantee success.

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ORLA

There is one girl and family I know who are always positive and ready to seize the day. I have known Orla Murphy since the day she was born. I remember the day my friend Betty rang me to say she’d had another little girl.

Orla hadn’t been due for another few weeks but she was in a hurry to get on with life and make her mark. This little girl already had a brother, Tommy, and two sisters, Deirdre and Maeve, so she was going to have to compete to make herself heard.

A few years later, she was joined by another little girl, Laoise, completing the Murphy family. Orla is the same age as our Philip and they were always good buddies. They are now 26. When Orla was only seven years old, her mum, Betty, got breast cancer.

They were all young children needing their mother. Betty had surgery and the whole gambit of treatment for some years. Meanwhile, John, her husband, an exceptional dad and busy dairy farmer, took on the complete role of parenting to allow his wife to get well. During that time we saw our friends cope admirably and, moreover, they became firm believers in seizing the day.

Orla put her head down and worked on at her studies. She was also learning viola and it was apparent to all that she was a competent musician. She hit Coláiste Choilm running and Betty would announce Orla’s achievements quietly.

I remember one of her first-year teachers saying: “If I could give her more that 100%, I would.”

Betty and John were proud but never too exuberant about Orla. Hence, she remained grounded, happy and focused.

She had a lead role playing the viola in the school musical Fiddler on the Roof. She was a keen debater. She scooped a top award at the Young Scientist exhibition.

It was then that Orla realised her love for science and engineering when she led the school project on bubbles.

They won first prize in the mathematics, physics and chemistry section and also won a special award from the Institute of Physics.

CAREER PATH

Orla has always been a keen mathematician. Betty and John poked out summer schools and university courses to support Orla’s enquiring mind. She attained full marks and plenty to spare in her Leaving Cert. During that year, she wrote a column in Irish Country Living. Many of you may remember her.

Orla wanted to do a degree in music. This is the crunch part. Her mother was having none of it but she didn’t say no to Orla. She began to search to find a course that would suit Orla’s brilliance. She found a course in Glasgow that involved engineering, maths and music and off Orla went.

Again, she hit the ground running as the only girl in a class full of men. She completed part of her studies at the University of Radford in the USA.

She excelled all through and won several awards and bursaries for both engineering and music, including the Eilidh Reid Foster Prize, the William Wilson Scott Award, the Sir Thomas Beecham Scholarship and the Glasgow University Engineer’s Society Medal.

She now holds an MEng degree in electronics with music at the University of Glasgow.

CAO APPLICATIONS

Orla still retains her love of music and has performed around the world. She is a staff member at the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and a member of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.

Today, Orla is an audio engineer at Jaguar Land Rover. She is able to combine her love of music and her mathematical brain to produce elaborate sound systems in Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. To be fair, Betty had a huge part in this pathway for Orla.

At a time when our young folk are coming up to CAO applications, make sure that they get the proper advice. It is a critical time and they need direction.

Recently, Betty told me that they were going to London because Orla was shortlisted by the Institute of Engineering and Technology for the prestigious young women working in engineering award in the UK. I knew she would win and, of course, she did. Receiving the news was like getting news about one of our own.

In the coming months, Orla’s role will be to promote engineering as a career to girls. Women represent just 9% of the engineering workforce in the UK.

So, mums and dads, you might think that the lads and girls are off to the Young Scientist just to have fun, but you never know where it will lead. It is the place where enquiring minds are born. The teachers who coach and bring the young people to the RDS deserve great credit.

I am thrilled to bring you Orla’s good news. Heartiest congratulations to Orla and to her supportive family.