THE GRADUATES: What does it mean to have gone to Ballyfermot college?

As part of our coverage of BCFE's first of Media Alumni evening, Michelle Mac Mullan asked past students Lorraine Keane, Rick O’Shea, Arianna Dunne, and Mairead Farrell, 'What does it mean to have gone to BCFE?':

Lorraine Keane, TV3
I was only here for one year, and got the certificate. I was going to go on and do another year but I got a job with AA Roadwatch And because I had the experience from Ballyfermot it didn’t matter a bit that I didn’t have a degree.

Rick O’Shea, 2FM
Graduate is a very broad term because I never graduated. I was here for a year, I did a year between 92 and 93. And then, as it happens, I got a job, a real job, presenting on the radio and really it worked out well since then. [Ballyfermot] pointed me in the right direction at a time when I wasn’t hugely sure what I wanted to do with my life.

Arianna Dunne, Associated Newspapers
I’m really proud to be a Ballyfermot graduate.
When they were up on stage talking about keeping in touch and mentioning that you were a Ballyfermot student, saying ‘I do it all the time’, I really do. Ballyfermot is a great college, everybody who I was in class with has gone on to work in the media; we’re all really proud of each other.

Mairead Farrell, Today FM and RTE
Of course it means so much to me. I was only here for one year and it has completely changed my life.
It has left a massive stamp on my life as one of my closest I met friends in Ballyfermot, and we’re still in touch. It changed my life because at the end of the year I had to get a work placement and I got one in Today FM and six years later I’m still there