‘I feel like me, but there are parts of my brain that are broken. I am aware of which parts they are. I know the parts that aren’t working, and the ones that are’

After a life-altering stroke at just 40 years old, school teacher Máirín Ní Bheacháin found herself at a major crossroads in her life. She talks to Jessie Collins about coming back from the brink and discovering a whole new reason to live

Máirín Ní Bheacháin: ‘I never had the ‘why me?’ thing. I am a bit of a fighter and anyway, what’s the alternative?’ PIc: Maura Hickey

It was the summer of 2012. Máirín Ní Bheacháin was standing in front of her fourth class students at Mary Mother of Hope Senior National School in Huntstown in west Dublin, when suddenly her words wouldn’t come out. She had no idea what was happening.

A mum to baby boy Ewan and two-year-old Muirne at the time, she had noticed she’d been struggling a bit with pushing a buggy around, and with cycling ...