Someone once said that everybody in life should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect but for the respect from others. On one hand, I am loath to burden people in public life with the pressure of being a role model. I recall the American basketball player, Charles Barkley saying he wasn’t a role model. “Just because, I can dunk a basketball, doesn’t mean I should raise your kids,” he said.
But there are times in life when we all need to find a pathway to somewhere better; and encounter someone who will act as a guide at the various crossroads that we all encounter from time to time; in early life, midlife and later life.
This week I had the privilege of speaking to two Galwaywomen who deserved the monicker of role models, because of their commitment to doing what they want to do, but also being willing to allow that to be used as a road map for versions of their younger selves.
On Sunday, Mullagh’s Sarah Dervan leads out Galway in an All-Ireland senior camogie final for the third successive year. In 2019, she spearheaded the team that brought spectacular camogie to the masses.
Galway have lost more than they have won in terms of finals (like my native county across the border ), but the ability for such teams to dust yourself down, pick yourself up and go again is what makes success all the more enjoyable when it arrives. What is rare is wonderful and how wonderful it will be if both Galway and Mayo return home with senior titles this weekend.
In our chat, Sarah revealed that hurling was ingrained in the household she came from, but that a spark was lit the day she watched her clubmate lift Galway’s first camogie title in 1996. She was just one of thousands of young Galway children in Croke Park on that day, but it is a memory that drives her each time she leads Galway out and drives her each time she needs picking up after a difficult sporting setback. From little acorns do mighty oaks grow.
The second woman I interviewed has a similarly inspiring story. When Pamela Uba came to Ireland as a young child to be reared in a life of Direct Provision, the options open to her were limited by her status. But her mother knew that hard work and determination would open doors for her children if as Pamela told me, they became “the best possible versions of themselves.”
And so they did. Emerging from direct provision, getting educated, going to college, contributing to the front line effort as a medical scientist at UHG, breaking barriers and last Sunday, being named Miss Ireland. She now goes on to represent a new Ireland at Miss World in Puerto Rico in a few months time.
Both women deserve to be role models, because they front up and become role models. They show that others can be, because we can see. Our region is proud to have them, and thousands more like them. People like you and you and you and you... Let us paraphrase Pamela and become the best possible versions of ourselves. It’s not easy, but we all benefit.
On a final note, good luck to Sarah and her team... and to my native county as well. if Mayo win the All-Ireland, there won’t be a tap of work done in Galway this side of Christmas. #wheretheoceankissesireland
