‘I remember asking my mum if she ever loved me, and she replied, ‘Of course... I just loved gear more’’: Dr Katriona O’Sullivan on how she beat the odds Not long before she received her PhD in psychology, Dr Katriona O’Sullivan was waiting outside a Trinity College classroom when a mature student pulled her up for being in the ‘wrong’ place. “You can’t clean in here now,” the fortysomething student said, appraising O’Sullivan’s messy bun, hoodie and jeans. “We have class.”