“I’d like to be remembered for not fucking everything up”

Ceile Varley speaks to VP for Education Cillian Byrne about underage drinking, dealing with a new team and being “shy and innocent”

by Ceile Varley

The walls of Cillian Byrne’s office are covered in posters and pictures. A small portrait of him, drawn in pencil, hangs beside his desk. In it he grins and raises a can of beer, toga clad.

He sits down and starts to play with a camera. “My hands are covered in glitter for some reason.”

Does he read? No but he loves music and watching movies. He loves rugby, and says the best way to chill out is sitting around with friends.

He is the youngest sabbatical officer on the students’ union this year, and was last year as well. He’s used to being the youngest as he started university in DCU at 17.

This will be Cillian’s seventh year at DCU. He did an undergraduate degree in Business and an MA in E-Commerce. He then did a year as VP for Education and Welfare.

This year he only has half the job but says it’s the half to which he’s better suited anyway.

He says, “I suppose I’m the kind of person who likes to guide other people through the experience they might have had before. Coming in at 17 you learn a lot by watching because you have to watch everyone else have fun before you get the opportunity to have it yourself.”

He went on, “That’s part of it as well, knowing other people are going through the same thing and you’ve already learned from it – not that I would aspire to be  a teacher or anything like that but I would feel that I’m not a bad one.”

He enjoyed Business, but says “If I was to go again in terms of CAO I would have loved to do something like Food Science or Sports and but I was always torn between Business and that. The year that I joined DCU would have been the Irish Times university of the year for the whole year previous to that.  So the Business course was top in the country.

“My next brother up to me was a graduate from here as well and I suppose I always would have been pushing to go somewhere away from Donegal  – to experience living on my own – although I ended up living with my uncle and my cousin for a couple of years. So technically I was living away from home but was still with family.”

He describes the pitfalls of being underage in college. “First year for me – not that it was difficult or any of that – but being 17 it was a lot more difficult to get socially involved. I wasn’t 18 until I actually came back in second year.”

“Because I was 17 in first year I wasn’t able to get out much. The one night I got into 21s I remember walking down the stairs thinking this is going to be great and the place was empty. Same thing happened the other time I was able to get in somewhere.”

“Any opportunity to have a party I probably went a bit too hard and heavy on the alcohol compared to everyone else and had to be – I’m not the smallest of people – but had to be carried to bed by everyone. I think it took four of them to navigate me up the narrow stairs. Waking up with a massive saucepan beside your bed you just know you were making a tit of yourself the night before. That happened me in first year twice and I think it happened the year before last as well.”

He came into DCU through the Access programme and says, “Straight away when I started college there were 120 people that I knew already which kinda gave me a solid ground of friends especially among differnet faculties.

“Its all very well and good making friends within your own class or club or soc but if you have mates that you would recognise from all different courses and faculties it makes the college such a more friendly place.  You’re walking past and every fifth person is waving at you.”

He said “I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people and that kind of stuff so I don’t remember an element of fear at all.”

Cillian laughs and says, “I always tell new people I’m a shy and innocent person. I probably never was but I’ve gotten to the stage where no-one would ever believe that about me. I’m a lot more forward but I still have my moments where I like to sit back and watch.”

“I started getting more involved probably in  my final year. I had been the captain of the rugby club for the year previously and I was class rep for second, third and fourth year.”

“When I was in first year I wasn’t actually old enough to play rugby for the college at senior level so as much as I tried to get involved and play I couldn’t and there wasn’t enough of us for a freshers team that year so I was on the freshers’ football squad.”

This is Cillian’s second year on the job. So it is easier second time round? “The majority of it is just learning on the job. It really is. I probably said it last year that regardless of whatever of the five candidates got in you would learn so much from dealing with it day in day out that by the time it comes the first years coming in you’ll be on the ball. There’s people now who say oh you’re in your second year now you must know everything – absolutely not, I’m still picking up things I’ve never come across before.”

“The year before has helped in terms of the standard information but you still thrown the odd curveball where you’d just go, oh shit, and you don’t know what to do with it.”

He said that he “had a great experience during the first year and absolutely loved every second of it – especially the one to one peer advice which is something I really enjoy doing and being able to help those that feel really really lost.”

“I suppose there’s a bit of personal satisfaction involved in wanting to do it again. It’s what I like doing. And it’s probably what I’d like to get involved in after as well, that or something very similar.”

He says that no day in the job is the same. “We have 10,000 students and even if only 1000 of them come in and use the SU there’s going to be different stories for each one so thats 1000 different issues although you can send out emails as a catch all and try to do your best but there’ll always be ones where that doesn’t really apply.”

How is he finding working with a new team? “At first when the team was elected I thought, oh shit, I’m going to be the one who’s least like the rest of them. I thought that Ed and Collie were going to be bezzies but then when Collie was away that was a opportunity for the two of us to work more closely together.

The relationship with Ed is quite strong but I’m not the one to let friendships get in the way if I think he’s doing something wrong, so he’s always getting frustrated with me when I try to pull him back on differnet things. It’s the same way they’ll pull me back on different things if needs be. We keep each other in check.

He loves hearing feedback, and smiles as he remembers some of the things people have said. “On a number of occassions over the summer it’s happend that students and even some staff memeber have said ‘you know what, you guys are doing a good job’ and that sort of stuff is really good for the confidence.”

Cillian’s least favourite aspect of the job is disciplinary committee. “It’s a tough one you know because sometimes you get students who personally you feel shouldn’t be there, sometimes it’s students who have been caught for plagiarism because they made a mistake.”

He went on, “It’s frustrating as well becuse you get people who have done it on purpose and you feel like they’re cheating themselves and their classmates. The university will catch them and can punish them. But the influence it can have on their relationship with their classmates – it’s horrendous to see it. There’s more than just getting caught as a risk.”

Cillian described some of the skills he’s needed for his role. “You need huge empathy. Just huge. And the rule that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason really does stick. The more you talk the less opportunity they have to say what they need to say or want to say. it can be tough because some of the stories are quite awful at times but you know what, every life has its hard moments and no doubt I’ll experience them too so I suppose I’m nearly learning off the students as well.

He summed it up. “It’s knowing how to cope and if I’ve learned how to do it before I share my experience with them and if I haven’t they share it with me.”

He said that this year he’s particualrly looking forward to mental health week. “What we did last year I felt was very nice and we’re going to build on that. That probably is the campaign I’m most attached to. Especially what we did last year with the UV walls – it wasn’t like oh my god here are these people, these are their problems but more they’ve the exact same thing as me.  A realisation that everyone has their rough patches and goes through hard times now and again. Anyway we can reduce the stigma around mental health is good.”

He says he wouldn’t want to change many things about his role this year. “I could be more professonal about things but then it changes what the office would be so I wouldn’t necessarily look for that. It’s not that everything is perfect but everything is working at the moment.”

He said his favourite part of his years in DCU was graduating – not that he didn’t love it here but “Graduation is special. You have all the parties and gigs throughout your years but graduation is something else. I’ve gotten to do it twice so far and it gets addictive. Walking across the stage being handed your degree shaking hands with the president and hearing well done, you’ve got your degree now. It’s really something to be proud of.”

He said he’s “absolutely” looking forward to the year ahead, not least because working on an empty campus over the summer gets depressing. “There’s always a lull over the summer becuase people weren’t around campus, not that it was boring but everything just slowed down. When students are around activity levels are almost too fast but I suppose when you’ve come from that very high level, the nature of the summer is a bit more depressing. It’s great coming back.”

So what’s next for Cillian? He says he would actually like to continue working advising students. “The advice centre on campus or the access centre even student recruitment that sort of thing. I know coming to college can be a very daunting time for some people. But other people can fly through it no bother, they might have gifted social skills to start with but there’s always going to be people who’re going to take a little bit longer. It’s not that they’re not going to make it, just that it takes a little bit longer and I suppose the support units in the uni are there to help them catch up.”

“I’d like to be remembered for not fucking everything up. I wouldn’t necessarily like to do something amazing that no-one can live up to because when you come in as a sabbat there’s many jobs to be done so if you keep pushing and pushing yourself to leave this big mark you’ll leave other areas behind. That is not what I like doing”