She left school at 14 but transformed her life to earn a doctorate and become a university lecturer.

The former dressmaker and waitress has now published a book about Irish female revolutionaries.

But remarkable 61-year-old Dubliner Ann Matthews merits a study in her own right as she proved to be a pioneering figure in achieving success through the benefits of adult education.

Dr Matthews is now encouraging adults hit by the economic recession to enhance their own lives and job prospects by becoming mature students.

She was working as a waitress during the previous economic recession in the 1980s when she decided to go back to school.

"Taking the first step is hugely important, no matter how minuscule the step," she said.

Her new book, Renegades -- Irish Republican Women 1900-1920, will be launched on Saturday afternoon at the Dublin City Library and Archive in Pearse Street.

When Ann left school at 14, in the early 1960s, it was considered normal to quit school at an early age. The majority of children from working class homes throughout Ireland left school aged 14, many leaving after seventh class in primary school.

Ann's mother Jane Byrne, raised in "a respectable tenement" in Dublin's Marlborough Street, married fisherman John Matthews, from Anagassan, Co Louth,

Labourer

Ann grew up in Dublin's north inner city, at Coburg Place, off Seville Place, where her parents bought a house in 1942. Her father worked as a labourer in Dublin but work was scarce and he frequently travelled to England to work on building sites.

Ann, one of six children, remembered being brought down to the docks with the other children by her mother on several occasions in the 1950s to wave goodbye to her father as his ship left for England crowded with Irish emigrants. "I'd have a pain in my gut I missed him so much when he was going," said Ann. "My mother would tell me to wave at him, but the ship would be crowded and I couldn't see him, so I wouldn't wave."

She said her family would have suffered very hard times if her father had not kept working. His father returned permanently in 1958 and worked for years as a hotel porter in the city.

"My parents had a very strong work ethic which was absorbed by the children," she said.

Angry

Ann began a life-long love affair with books when she joined Charlemont Mall library as a child. She loved learning. She went to the local St Laurence O'Toole primary school and went on to the technical school in Parnell Square where typing was taught.

But less than a year after starting at the technical school, her mother took her out of school and sent her off to become an apprentice seamstress.

"I hated leaving school. I was very angry at my mother. But she knew that office work was badly paid and she wanted me to learn something that would allow me to support myself if needed. She'd say to me 'You can't eat a typewriter,'" said Dr Matthews.

She became a skilled seamstress, working for a French woman in Ballsbridge who made haute couture clothing for a wealthy clientele.

She later went on to work in other clothing factories as a machinist. But she continued to read avidly and enjoyed doing a part-time literature course in Eccles Street.

When she married, in 1973, aged 23, she gave up paid employment as it was considered normal for newly married women to quit work. They moved to Clane, Co Kildare, and their only child, Alyson, was born the following year. They moved to Newcastle, Co Dublin, in 1978 and two years later she began working as a waitress. Then, in 1981, she entered Pearse College, in Crumlin, which was the first college to offer daytime adult education. "I entered very shy and nervous but the staff encouraged me. I found my voice when I took up public speaking with the encouragement of teacher Eileen Clancy," she said.

She sat Leaving Cert exams in maths, English and history and became the first mature student from Pearse College to attend Maynooth University, where she studied for two years before re-entering the workforce.

Following her marital separation, she returned to the university in 1992 with the help of a mature student grant. She earned a BA in History and English in 1994 and earned an MA in History the following year. She became a part-time history lecturer.

In 1996, she started working on her PhD dissertation on Irish Republican women activists. She was appointed an RTE Scholar in 1998, which included a €5,000 grant to fund her studies. She also worked as a tutor in Maynooth.

Recession

She married Sergeant Ben Halligan of 2 Cavalry Squadron in Dublin in 2002 and received her doctorate in 2004. Ben, who had been a great support to her for years, died in 2005.

Dr Matthews, who lives in Co Kildare, is now a lecturer in the Department of Adult Education in NUI, Maynooth.

She believes women and men can gain enormously by choosing to embark on educational courses. "Even if it does not get a person a job, it is a way of progress for the self... It is a challenge to the self... And can be enjoyed. Education is never wasted," she said.

Going back to school transformed her own life. She said: "For me, it has meant I will never be bored again."

Dr Ann Matthews' book, Renegades -- Irish Republican Women 1900-1922, is published by Mercier Press, price €19.99