![\"Psychotherapist](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/B5C3Q3TTD5BRHGXJUCMQRYV4UY.jpg\")
Psychotherapist Ellen MacDermott. Photograph: Ryan James Fitzmaurice <\/p>\nHappy at work? Apparently so. Ireland ranked an impressive second in this year\u2019s Global Life-Work Balance Index, published by global HR solutions provider Remote. Then again, a survey by recruiter Hays Ireland also found that 61 per cent of professionals want to change jobs this year. If you\u2019re part of this cohort, then take inspiration from these five individuals who, mid-career, packed in the 9-to-5 for their true calling. From IT to goldsmith, Meta to antiques dealer, scientist to schoolteacher each found a way to achieve true happiness at work. <\/p>\n
\u2018I was more interested in people\u2019s inner selves than fashion shows and beauty shoots\u2019Ellen MacDermottGraphic designer turned psychotherapistPsychotherapist Ellen MacDermott. Photograph: Ryan James Fitzmaurice <\/p>\n
Ellen MacDermott had a fast-paced, creative and exciting career in her 20s. As the senior designer on fashion magazine Harper\u2019s Bazaar US, the now 31-year-old worked in the 46-storey, Norman Foster-designed Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, frequently attending star-studded parties and regularly travelling to Paris fashion week. <\/p>\n
To quote The Devil Wears Prada<\/a>, \u201ca million young girls would kill for this job\u201d, and MacDermott\u2019s story is not unlike that of Andy Sachs, the determined but conflicted second assistant to Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly in the 2006 film. \u201cThe job was 24-7. You lived to work,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I was always late for dinner parties and birthdays, bringing expensive gifts to make up for the fact that I had no time. I couldn\u2019t hold down a boyfriend; any time I was on a date, I\u2019d get a call to go back to the office to make changes to something.\u201d <\/p>\n MacDermott was on a hamster wheel with no time to think or weigh up. \u201cIt was just go, go, go.\u201d But February 2020 proved a pivotal month for the Dubliner. \u201cI was in Paris at the Louvre and my work was part of an exhibition celebrating 150 years of Harper\u2019s Bazaar. It was amazing. Then within a week, Covid hit and everything stopped. Suddenly, I was back in Dublin, living with my parents.\u201d <\/p>\n The dramatic change of scenery and pace forced her to slow down and consider her circumstances, and it was then she admitted to herself that there\u2019d always been a faint whisper that she wasn\u2019t on the right path. \u201cI started doing a lot of therapy and realised I was more interested in people\u2019s inner selves than fashion shows and beauty shoots. I wanted a more meaningful career, but I didn\u2019t know what that looked like.\u201d <\/p>\n A friend gave her a copy of The Artist\u2019s Way by Julia Cameron, and that\u2019s when MacDermott\u2019s pivot from glossy magazines to therapy room truly began. She signed up for a four-year degree course in psychotherapy and is now a trainee psychotherapist in her final year at Dublin Business School. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve experienced the most bizarre turnaround in my life over the past three years. Everything has changed. I\u2019ve become much closer to my family. I can maintain friendships, but I\u2019ve also cut some friends loose \u2013 those who were only around because of my glamorous job,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be completely honest,\u201d she adds, \u201cI think I was only working in fashion publishing because of the way it was perceived and how it changed the way people saw me. I was the girl doing really well, being flown to Paris and attending Chanel fashion shows.\u201d <\/p>\n MacDermott has no regrets about leaving the world of design and fashion. \u201cI\u2019ve traded an exciting career for something deeply fulfilling. Doing a job you truly feel aligned with trumps any glamour or financial gain,\u201d she says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I never once took a holiday where I wasn\u2019t checking emails. Now I have freedom and flexibility and every day is different\u2019Kathleen Lonergan Recruiter at Meta turned antiques dealer If you\u2019re an interior design enthusiast or a lover of antiques, you may well be familiar with @houseofklax<\/a> on Instagram and its founder, Kathleen Lonergan. A picture of health and happiness as she enthusiastically showcases the vintage finds she sells through Instagram and her online store, Lonergan paints a very different picture of her life just three years ago.<\/p>\n An international recruitment leader at Meta<\/a>, Lonergan\u2019s professional life was a whirlwind of global travel, managing teams across multiple time zones and constant performance-related pressure. The 48-year-old, who worked in tech recruitment for 20 years, 12 of those at Meta, says she was constantly \u201con\u201d. \u201cI could have a call with Singapore at 7am and a call with the States at midnight the same day,\u201d she says. \u201cI was always online and always checking in on how my team was doing; I never once took a holiday where I wasn\u2019t checking emails.\u201d<\/p>\n Towards the end of her time at Meta, she suffered a series of health issues and the pressurised nature of the job meant she didn\u2019t take the time she needed to get better. \u201cI put myself in some tough situations at work. I remember on one occasion presenting to 300 people and feeling as if I was about to pass out.\u201d<\/p>\n She took sick leave in 2022 and began contemplating what might come next. \u201cI started thinking about what I wanted and what I didn\u2019t want,\u201d she explains. \u201cI didn\u2019t want multiple time zones, I didn\u2019t want to be online all day and I didn\u2019t want to manage teams. What I wanted was to slow down and do something on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n She loved interior design and antiques, so she set up an Instagram page and soon the seed of an idea began to grow. \u201cI already had a platform and I knew I could sell so I thought maybe I could share my passion for antiques online.\u201d In a serendipitous turn of events, Lonergan was made redundant in 2023. Two years on, her online business is thriving and she feels better than ever. \u201cThis job has given me the time to get fully well. I\u2019ve got my energy back and everything in my life is more balanced.\u201d <\/p>\n There are many aspects of her new job that she loves. \u201cI have freedom and flexibility and every day is different. I work to my own schedule and my husband and I can head off in our little camper van to the west of Ireland whenever we want to. But finding beautiful items for people who will treasure them is the best feeling in the world. One of my customers messaged me recently to say she\u2019d put photographs of her husband and daughter in a locket she bought from me and she wears it when she\u2019s having breast cancer treatment to give her strength. That blew me away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I was lucky that I had my brother\u2019s encouragement and my wife\u2019s willingness to take a leap of faith\u2019Barry McCaul Big tech to goldsmith Barry McCaul is the cofounder of McCaul Goldsmiths along with his brother David. While David followed a traditional path to goldsmithing, training at NCAD before working for luxury jewellery houses in London, Barry studied computer science and worked in IT in Belgium, Australia and Dublin with a brief stint as an academic at DCU. But for him, the substantial salary he was earning didn\u2019t make up for the workplace politics, pressure and lack of creativity in big tech. \u201cThe phrase golden handcuffs really struck a chord with me at that time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n His wife, Claire, was aware he wasn\u2019t happy and his brother constantly remarked on how stressed he seemed. So Barry and Claire made the drastic decision to leave their three-bedroom home outside Swords in Dublin and their well-paid jobs (Claire was a physiotherapist working at the Mater hospital) and move to a single room in a three-bedroom apartment in east London so Barry could set up a goldsmithing business with his brother.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been afraid of trading short-term comforts for longer-term gain,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I was lucky that I had my brother\u2019s encouragement and my wife\u2019s willingness to take a leap of faith and put up with a complete change in lifestyle,\u201d says the 48-year-old. He spent four months \u2013 and a substantial amount of their savings \u2013 on an intensive diamond-setting course in Antwerp before the couple rented out their house and moved across the water. Within nine months, the brothers had opened McCaul Goldsmiths in Exmouth Market. <\/p>\n He recalls many of his friends who had stayed at home working in IT telling him he was living the dream. \u201cIt was definitely a kind of dream,\u201d he says, laughing, \u201cbut we were absolutely broke for the first few years.\u201d The brothers recently opened a second atelier in Malahide in Dublin and are both living back in the community they grew up in. \u201cIn some respects I traded one stress for another, but I knew for definite very early on that I was so much happier working with Dave than I was in IT,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re self-employed, you\u2019re either stressed because you\u2019re busy or stressed because you\u2019re not busy. But it\u2019s not the kind of frustration you feel as an employee in a job that doesn\u2019t make you happy. You\u2019re the master of your own destiny. And that feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I used to be tired all the time, overworked. Now I walk five steps from our cottage to the gallery\u2019Liz GreehyJournalist to gallery owner \u201cWhen you\u2019re driven to work for yourself, I think you\u2019re probably a bit of a workaholic,\u201d says Liz Greehy. \u201cThat\u2019s my problem, but now I\u2019m working hard in a way that I enjoy and makes me feel fulfilled.\u201d The 45-year-old is co-owner of contemporary art gallery Kilbaha Gallery on the Loop Head Peninsula in west Clare. Formerly a freelance journalist, Greehy wrote for a variety of magazines and local newspapers before launching Stylebible.ie<\/a>, an online fashion magazine, in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n \u201cOnline magazines weren\u2019t really a thing then so it gained all sorts of momentum really quickly,\u201d she says. \u201cSuddenly I was being asked to host events, judge fashion shows and beauty pageants and contribute to radio shows. It took me all over the country and all over Europe. It just snowballed.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, the travelling started to take its toll and the job \u201cbegan to feel a little hollow … I felt I\u2019d lost myself somewhere, and it left me re-evaluating everything,\u201d she says. She stepped back from writing and travelling and spent time at home in Loop Head. \u201cI came home and looked at what was right in front of me. There was so much creativity all around me here \u2013 I\u2019d grown up immersed in the art world; my dad was a sculptor and my brother, Seamus, is a sculptor.\u201d<\/p>\n They had some family land, so Greehy joined forces with Seamus\u2019s wife, Ailish Connolly, who had a background in sales but also \u201ca really natural eye for curation\u201d, and they built Kilbaha Gallery from the ground up 11 years ago. She says the career change has made an extraordinary difference to her life. \u201cI used to be tired all the time, overworked, and I wasn\u2019t with my family or present in my community. Now, I walk five steps from our cottage to the gallery, my children have grown up running in and out of it and my free time is given to local development groups like Loop Head Together.\u201d<\/p>\n She finds supporting Irish artists incredibly satisfying. \u201cShipping Irish art all over the world is wonderful and exciting and it\u2019s a great feeling helping to connect people with lovely pieces of art.\u201d She says she and Ailish work extremely hard because, with an online presence (kilbahagallery.com<\/a>), the gallery never sleeps. \u201cBut we\u2019re both very happy and being back in my local community makes me even happier still.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I didn\u2019t want to spend my life moving liquids from one tube to another\u2019Declan CathcartResearch scientist turned secondary schoolteacher After just two weeks covering a biology teacher\u2019s maternity leave in a Kildare secondary school, Declan Cathcart contacted Trinity College about enrolling in its HDip (now the professional master in education or PME). Despite having spent more than a decade as a biotech research scientist in universities in the UK and Ireland with a stint working for large pharma companies, Cathcart says his love of secondary school teaching was immediate. <\/p>\n The 56-year-old, who teaches biology, maths and junior science at Temple Carrig School in Greystones, Co Wicklow, says he has never looked back since switching professions in the early noughties. \u201cI don\u2019t miss my lab life at all,\u201d he says. \u201cI love science and this job allows me to communicate and share ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n Cathcart became disillusioned with his career as a postdoctoral researcher for a couple of reasons. \u201cResearch has a really narrow focus,\u201d he explains. \u201cAs time went on, I felt I was learning more and more about less and less. Plus, the energy is always on securing grants to continue the research. I didn\u2019t want to get stuck chasing funding all of the time just to hold down a position in a university, and I didn\u2019t want to spend my life moving liquids from one tube to another.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u00a0Changing career midlife: \u2018At 45 I thought I was finished… But it didn\u2019t even occur to me that I could do anything else\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Looking back, there were signs that teaching may have been his true calling. \u201cDuring my time at UCC, I got to lecture and I really liked it. The groups were huge, though \u2013 200-300 pre-med students or first-year nurses \u2013 so I might as well have been speaking to an empty lecture theatre as to 300 silent students,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut I did have some smaller fourth-year groups and that\u2019s when I really got a taste for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cathcart initially accepted the maternity leave teaching cover with some reluctance. \u201cI thought, teaching in a school? I don\u2019t know if I can hack that.\u201d But he immediately liked the atmosphere in the school and in the classroom. \u201cI got on really well with the students and I brought a lot of experience to the table that was unusual enough and the students appreciated that,\u201d he says. He\u2019s been at Temple Carrig School since it was founded 11 years ago and he describes the culture there as \u201creally something special… My colleagues are amazing and the kids we teach are lovely. It\u2019s just really enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n Next week, October 6th-10th, is International Happiness at Work Week<\/a>, an annual initiative designed to invite conversations about how to make happiness in the workplace the norm.<\/p>\n![\"Antiques](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GTOC2WWNTVDVREZJ2XT45D7BHA.JPG\")
Antiques dealer Kathleen Lonergan. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n![\"Goldsmith](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/77ER5F5Y6FGQDIDLBIJWKHHESI.JPG\")
Goldsmith Barry McCaul. Photograph: Bryan O \u2019Brien <\/p>\n![\"Liz](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/XYKEKHCKGBFJXLHBJNZGGYGIJA.jpg\")
Liz Greehy in the Kilbaha Gallery, Loop Head, Co Clare. Photograph: Eamon Ward <\/p>\n![\"Secondary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/PEPBLWMCKNG4ZGSOJAHQCKUZXE.JPG\")
Secondary schoolteacher Declan Cathcart <\/p>\n