SHSS Alumnae Link - Isabelle Mannix

Welcome to SHSS Alumnae Link. This is where we connect with past pupils and find out what they’re up to now. This week we linked with Isabelle Mannix who graduated in 2013.

Name and position:

Isabelle Mannix, Trainee Solicitor in KOD Lyons Solicitors.

Lives:

Dublin.

Best memory of Sacred Heart:

Making friends that I still have to this day. I always felt very comfortable in Sacred Heart and it felt like a second home. I have very fond memories of Religion class with Mrs Keohane. I always felt that the moment you walked into that room, it was so calm and felt like a mediation period.

What were your favourite classes?

History and English.

Tell us about your career progression to date:

After leaving Sacred Heart, I did Clinical Law in UCC. This was a four-year course and during my third year, I had the opportunity to do work placement. I never wanted to go down the Commercial Law route, so I decided to use this placement opportunity to see what else was available from a career in law. For the first half of my placement year, I worked in the California Innocence Project in San Diego. This was an amazing and eye-opening experience where I got to work on cases for people who had been wrongfully incarcerated. Upon returning from San Diego, I did the second half of my placement in KOD Lyons Solicitors working in the Circuit Criminal Court Department and I was offered a traineeship at the end of my time there. I completed my final year in UCC and then began my FE1 Law Exams before returning to KOD Lyons to begin my traineeship. I recently completed PPC1 in Blackhall Place and am now back in the office until next year when I will do PPC2.

If you weren’t in the job you have, what would you be doing?

I love organising so I think I would do well as a personal assistant. My calendar is colour coded and I have to-do list apps on my phone and computer. I wasn’t naturally organised growing up, but I have trained myself over time. I don’t have the best memory so if something isn’t written down or set as a reminder, I will forget it! Even when it came to studying while in Sacred Heart, I used to have to write things out again and again until I remembered them. I could also see myself being a wedding/event planner if law doesn’t work out!

 Advice you would give your teenage self:

From someone who took the Leaving Cert very seriously, I would tell myself to relax and not be so serious. It is hard to have perspective on it while you are still in secondary school but once a few years have passed, everyone will be doing such different things that it won’t matter what path you have chosen.

Favourite quote or motto?

My dad once said to me ‘You can’t be all things to all men.’ I am a good problem solver and I tend to try to fix everyone else’s problems and not want to let people down. Over the last few years, I have realised it is impossible to keep everyone happy all the time.

What is your hidden talent?

You know when you see someone and you think, they look familiar? Well, I have always been very good at pointing out exactly who that person looks like, whether it be a famous person or a mix between two people from down the road. I’m not sure if it’s necessarily a talent!

Huge thanks to Isabelle for taking the time to answer our questions!

See you soon for the next instalment of SHSS Alumnae Link.