This week I’m kicking off a new Q and A careers special with an in-depth interview with Laois football star Ross Munnelly, looking at his achievements on the football field and in the world of academia.
Legendary Laois footballer Ross Munnelly credits the late great Mick O’Dwyer as a major positive influence in his life.
Ross memorably won a Leinster title in the first year of the feted Kerryman’s reign as Laois manager.
Ross, then aged 20, scored 1-1 in the provincial decider against Kildare as the O’Moore men won their first Leinster crown for 57 years.
“Micko gave me an opportunity. He threw me in at the deep end and knowing that he had confidence in me. He told me that he fully believed in me. And in many ways that was that was all I needed to just go on and have a great life, so I’ll be forever grateful,” Ross told me.
“He’s always remained just a brilliant coach, mentor and friend. We kept in touch down through the years and I’ve made many trips down to Waterville and in more recent years to Kenmare to the nursing home to see him.
“I always walked away from those conversations feeling 10 feet tall and thinking that I can go on and embrace the next challenge, or revise the current goal and go after something bigger,” he said.
“Surrounding yourself in life with people like that is a real, real gift and that’s why I’d encourage young people to hang around with people that will help them to strive and think bigger.”
It was that self-belief that allowed the Arles native who now lives in The Heath with his wife Dee and daughter Lily, to reach spectacular heights in both his football and academic careers.
His football achievements are well known. His epic career spanned 20 championship campaigns and was one of the inter-county game’s longest serving players when he retired in December 2022, just shy of his 40th birthday.
During that time he amassed honour after honour, donned the county jersey 200 times, won a senior Leinster title, got three All-Star nominations as well as one for Young Player of the Year.
He earned three call-ups for the Ireland international rules side. He won a county title with Arles-Kilcruise, and was Laois footballer of the year twice.
Ross has also turned his hand to coaching. He has been Justin McNulty’s coach/selector in Laois for the last two years.
He has worked with Roscommon club-side Padraig Pearses alongside Frank Canning for the last two years and has committed to a third season there.
He was part of the management team that guided them to a county final win last year as well as a Connacht final, toppling heavyweights St Brigid’s and Corofin along the way.
Not so well known, perhaps, are the details of his off-pitch achievements, and his route to the top tier of third level education in Ireland. He currently holds the position of Director of Alumni Relations at DCU.
“People would often ask what does alumni relations mean, and it’s basically about all those who have studied at the university at undergraduate or postgraduate level becoming part of our permanent alumni community.
“Essentially they’re part of the DCU family for life and our office is responsible for waking up every day to think of ways to keep those graduates engaged with the university.
“That can be through experiential opportunities, like attending events, reunions and honorary conferings. Or it can be in terms of volunteering programmes where graduates will come back and mentor students. So things like that which we know are hugely transformational for the student experience.
“And we also have a strong communications strategy running throughout the year as well to keep graduates up to date on what’s happening at the university.
“So it’s to keep that relationship with our 120,000 graduates who are located all over the world to make sure that they know what’s happening at the university and from our perspective to make sure that they remain connected with us.”
Every day is different, according to Ross. “Every day I get to meet new people. So more often than not, every day is a good day.
“Our mission at DCU is to transform lives and societies. And on a daily basis I get to be part of living that vision and seeing the impact of DCU transforming lives and societies through the achievements and the dedication of our graduates and the different things that they do all over the globe.
“We are a small team in the alumni office. But the output from the people who are working on the team is huge and I think key to the team in our office is that everyone is really passionate about their job.
“Everybody really enjoys building and strengthening the network between the graduates and the university.”
The working environment provided by DCU is also a big plus for Ross. “I really enjoy being on campus, surrounded by young people, curiosity, innovation and energy, because that takes you along with it.
“No one person creates that, that’s a flow of energy when you’re on campus and you see students going between lectures and the enthusiasm and the energy of youth, that is really powerful.”
It was that positive backdrop of DCU that provided him with the opportunity to undertake four different part-time post-graduate courses, while also working at the university. After the Leaving Cert he studied economics and geography at Maynooth University. He then taught for a year.
“Then I had an opportunity to go to DCU to start my post-graduate study. So I did a masters in e-learning and that coincided with getting a job in the student recruitment office in the university.
“That was the first of six years in a row where I completed three postgrad programmes. I did the masters in e-learning and the graduate diploma in education so as to become a qualified economics and geography teacher.
“And then the third programme was the graduate diploma in guidance counselling. That programme was hugely transformational for me because it tapped into an area that I was really, really interested in, which is supporting people and helping other people to grow.”
Ross then took a break from study but went back to do the executive MBA in DCU between 2018 and 2020, realising the dream he had always had to study business. He topped it off with a mediation training programme in 2022.
Throughout this time, holding down full-time jobs as well as part-time post-graduate study, Ross was also playing a starring role on the Laois football team.
That must have been challenging? “I tend to concentrate less on challenges and more on solutions. I would say to young people that goals can be achieved simultaneously, especially in an amateur sport.”
His pragmatic approach was to have conversations with course programme chairs and coaches, seeing from the outset how both could be achieved. Figuring out the extent to which the academic year co-exists with the football calendar was key, he said.
“Because when you break it down, they probably only co-exist for 12 weeks really. It was about chunking the weeks down into blocks where a particular amount would be attending college, understanding the content, but parking the assignments.
“I would have had a very busy block of National League games with Laois, for example. And then when they eased off, I would take a block where I would focus a lot on my assignments to get them done.
“I think it was about being able to differentiate and be comfortable differentiating, that was something that I learned to do. And I was very happy with doing that.”
Ross believes that a lot of brilliant learnings from sport can carry into other parts of life. “How to cope with assignments, exams, heavy volumes of readings and analysis, and the knockbacks as well.
“You get all of them in sport. But in sport, you learn coping mechanisms and you learn to embrace the ups and the downs with your teammates. And that encourages you to speak to people. And it encourages you to ask for help.
“That’s why I like the value of having a sporting mentor and a non-sporting mentor, people who will help you professionally, people who are at the other end of the phone, people who will meet you for a coffee.
“People who have been there and done that and made the same mistakes as you, and can just be reassuring, to say this isn’t as big a deal as you think it is. And there’s a way, there’s always a way around these things.”
The pressure of the CAO points race sees many students dropping out of sport but it’s not a move he recommends.
“If you fast forward five years after you’ve made that decision to give up, to a time when you are looking for your first job.
“Employers are looking for differentiators on a CV. What makes you different to the other maybe 50 people who are looking for that job? Employers can tell so much from people who volunteer.
“So, whether it be sport, drama, music, volunteering for the local credit union or fundraisers, you accumulate a massive amount of skills in doing so.
“And those skills jump off a CV, if you can tell that you’ve held a position of responsibility or you’ve played as part of a team or that you’ve played a leading role in some way.
“I would say to people as well, it’s just immeasurable how important work life balance is for all of us. Don’t give it up unless you really hate it. And if you really hate it, then take up something else.
“Don’t completely stop. If it’s not the right sport or volunteering opportunity for you, that’s fine, try something else. But do stay active, keep a work life balance and stay healthy.”
Ross believes there has never been a better time for accessing third level education.
“The opportunity and access to third level is constantly getting wider and wider and wider. For example, 95% of the DCU programmes at the moment have entry pathways from further education, so like your FETAC or your PLC courses.
“So where at one time students were faced with this huge pressure of getting the points, now that’s only one route into third level.
“If you don’t get in on your points initially, you can try the FETAC pathway, which is a stepping stone, or you can wait, you can go and travel and work and build up life skills and go in as a mature student.
“Whatever your journey to third level looks like, it’s different for all of us and that’s perfectly fine.
“But as I say, once you have a plan in your head and you stay committed to it, you will get there, whether it’s from the Leaving Cert typically at 17 or 18, or if you have to do a year-long stepping-stone programme, or you wait till you’re 23 to go in as a mature student you will get there if you set a solid goal.”
There is, however, one change Ross would like to see in the general area of education. “I would love for young people to be educated in the area of eating healthy, knowing how to cook and bake.
“I would love to see young people being able to walk into their own kitchens at home and seeing in their head so many healthy options that they can put together in five, ten, fifteen minutes.
“I’d have loved that myself, and I’d love that for the next generation, that however we do it, that it becomes second nature.”
What are his key tips to young people? “Give it your all. That’s the one thing I say to people, if you’re committing, give it everything, because you can’t not give it everything.
“Set yourself a goal and just be relentless in your pursuit of it. And remember, success is not always determined by the person who wins.
“Sometimes success is intangible, and for example, the people you meet, the friends that you make, the relationships that you form, they are invisible indicators of success.
“It’s not always about the person who wins the trophy or has what’s perceived to have the biggest job, or however else people might like to measure success.
“I think success has to be measured across a whole spectrum of tangible and intangible areas.”
On time management, he advised: “Get an understanding of how best to break down the timing, in terms of time spent at the books, and time refreshing yourself to make sure that whatever time you’re studying you have an energy to go and do that.”
He recommends evaluating as you go. “Are you maximising the benefit from the time that you’re spending doing what you’re doing? When you are studying constantly look at what it takes to become more efficient with the time you’re spending.
“And constantly review. It must be realistic and be about tangible and intangible measurements of that success.”
The Laois man’s philosophy is to always strive to improve, looking for the next opportunity and the next way of being more efficient and operating at a higher level.
“That keeps me constantly hungry for different opportunities, different ways of doing things, different ways of exploring my own value, the value of my own input into things and trying to be and trying to get better. I think that’s my kind of way.”
It’s an approach he has had since he was young. “If you go back to the sports field, coming home from games, I used to just go straight home and be out in the backyard and practice things I felt I had done wrong in the game.”
Nobody achieves anything on their own, he contended. “You need to have help and support. People have been very good to me along the way. I had great support and encouragement from home.
“Education was always heavily promoted in our house. It was seen as an opportunity. I was very lucky that my parents hugely inspired me in terms of work ethic and education.
“My wife, Dee and daughter Lily, also give unbelievable support, help me balance my time and keep me in check when I need that too!
“I was very lucky in Arles too, to have a mentor and coach, Larry Wall. He coached me in primary school all the way up to playing senior with Arles, and he always hammered home for me the importance of honesty, grit and contributing to your team.
“So those are the kinds of values I have been very, very lucky to have.”
Gold Star Careers offers one-to-one or small group career advice, in-person or online, to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. See www.goldsarcareers.ie or Gold star Careers Instagram for more information.
SEE ALSO – Check out all of the other Martina Mulhall pieces here
