After two decades in Dublin, Julie is thrilled to be back in her native Mayo

We’ve all heard stories about people who moved back to the West during or after the Covid-19 pandemic. Julie Doyle is one of those people – going from living and working in Dublin from the age of 19 as a solicitor in some of the capital’s busiest legal practices to finding herself moving back to her native Swinford in 2021 and taking on a teaching role in Midfield National School for a year.

Now back in the world of law and working in Swinford-based practice Westlex, Julie strikes you as being very content with where life has led her, despite some tough challenges. She is also a woman with a deep belief in the power of volunteerism, immersing herself in a host of Swinford’s local clubs and organisations.

Angelina: Julie, thanks for talking to me. Tell me about your background.

Julie: I'm originally from Swinford and I went to school here too. I did my Leaving Certificate at 16, so I was very young heading away to college - just on the cusp of turning 17, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Law was something that kind of interested me, and I thought it might play to my skills. It was either that or teaching. I ended up doing law at UCD, and it was only a three-year degree, so I was finished at 19. I then had to think about whether I'd do a postgrad or go to Blackhall to become a solicitor. 

I decided I needed to start working now but I had to try and get an apprenticeship. At the time, it was near impossible to get apprenticeships. I really just didn't know what I was going to do. My Dad was working for Bill Durkin in Bohola at the time. Bill had his business in Ranelagh, and my Dad said to me to go in to see Bill and have a talk with him. And there I was at 19, going up to meet this brilliant businessman whom I'd never met before. And he was so nice, and he just said to me 'Go have a chat with my solicitor who's sitting in the office downstairs.' I went down and just had a general chat with his solicitor, Joe Kelly. He said to me, 'I might need somebody to start an apprenticeship in October - would you be interested?' I said, 'Absolutely'. Sure enough, in September I got a call and I started with him in October.

It was really busy and it was a small firm. Joe was a sole practitioner, so he did a bit of everything and anything. But because he was doing a lot of the work for the Durkins, there was a huge property focus. So I was very much doing property law from day one. 

I worked with Joe maybe for about a year after I qualified and then I went to Gallagher Shatter - that was a great experience. I was with them for about three years until I moved into then one of the bigger firms, which was 300-plus staff, and that was Matheson Ormsby Prentice, as it was the time, Matheson now. I was with them until the crash in 2009.

Angelina: So when the financial crash happened, it must have had a huge impact?

Julie: It was awful. My husband Padraic had been working for a private equity firm and with the collapse of everything in 2008, the firm went into liquidation. So he and two of his fellow employees decided to start up their own business. And I always remember at the time Padraic saying, 'We're really lucky you still have your job'. He landed in LAX one January morning, and he got a call from me. I'm crying on the other end of the phone saying, 'I think I'm being let go'. 

So things were all a bit kind of in flux until nearly about a month later the formal decision came in and I'd lost my job. It was huge. There were no jobs to be had for solicitors. It was nearly 11 months before I managed to get another job. Eventually, after NAMA had just commenced and the banks were starting to look for people to come in, I ended up working for Bank of Ireland on their NAMA team.

Angelina: How long was that period of your career?

Julie: About two months in, I found out I was pregnant, which was amazing because we were having a lot of difficulty getting pregnant. I do remember that there was a job going in Bank of Ireland at the time, a promotion, and I wasn't going forward for it. And I remember the head of the division coming up to me and saying to me, 'Why aren't you going?' I said, 'Well, you know, it's kind of obvious!' And she said, 'Is that supposed to stop you? You're a good candidate'. 

With everything that had happened in the previous year, I think I had nearly had the wind taken out of my sails. With losing your job, you lose a lot of your self-esteem, and you question why - what are the reasons you were chosen over somebody else? And then for somebody to actively seek to promote you, even though you can only give maybe five months, but they were like, well, you can give five good months over somebody that may not. 

After I had James, I ended up working with ACC because it was a broader retail banking role rather than NAMA-specific. And then once the market started opening up, I went back into private practice and ended up back in one of the larger firms again and went back into property, funny enough. But then three months into the role, I was sent to work in a bank and I ended up on a regulatory project in the tracker mortgage project in Ulster Bank for about 18 months. Then the opportunity came to go work with Cluid. I went in as their Head of Legal and I was with them for about 18 months. I couldn't keep the hours up, so I decided then to just completely take a break and do something completely mad. And I went back to do the professional master’s in education with Hibernia in primary education.

Angelina: And it was during that period you moved back to Mayo?

Julie: We had come down to Mayo during the first summer of Covid lockdown and we had rented a house in Swinford. And I think maybe you get that sort of idyllic idea - isn't life so much easier down here? We'd always talked about moving west, but our lives were very firmly in Dublin. We were at the time thinking of buying in Dublin.
Because we were down here for lockdown, we were online at the time looking at properties in Dublin. But you'd end up being nosy and looking at Mayo as well. We just kind of said, maybe we could make this work. It all happened really quickly in the end and we moved in 2021. I really didn't know what I was going to do - I had qualified at that stage from the Masters.

On the first day of school for James in Midfield National School, where my sister was principal, one of her teachers was going to be off and they needed somebody to sub for the next day. And so she asked me if I would do the day for her. So I went again and did the day and she asked me to do the next day, and that was a Friday and I ended up doing the whole year. It was a lovely experience. 

I was finishing up in June then because it was just the year. Michael Smyth, a managing partner at Westlex, was one of the parents in the school. And I met him for coffee one day and he offered me the position. It was hard to turn down something local and friendly.

Angelina: While you were in Dublin Julie, you were deeply involved in the Mayo Association too?

Julie: There was always a great sense of volunteerism in my family. And I was lucky in Dublin in that I got involved in the Association through John Geary, who I was working with in Matheson at the time. And then at the same time, I was also involved in the Bar Association in Dublin (DSBA). I was involved in the two of them at the same time. I was the secretary of the DSBA at the same time as being secretary of the Mayo Association and was coming up to being chair of both at the same time so I had to choose, and I chose the Mayo Association over the DSBA with the true intention of stepping back on when I got into a more permanent job, but I just never went back. But I am still involved in the DSBA magazine, which is wonderful.

Angelina: Are you happy with the decision to move home and take this particular career choice, Julie?

Julie: I'm lucky to be able to move back at a time where I have got that experience behind me, so I can be more relaxed about life. There's always this maybe idealised view of when you're away and you're thinking about home, or especially when you have family here and there's so much going on, you always just think wouldn't it be nice to be there? And it is completely different when you move back because you don't step back into the life that you left and things have changed, so you are starting again. But getting involved in the local athletic club in Swinford, the ladies' GAA club and Cairde Maigh Eo has been brilliant. For me, it's about how can I give back to Swinford now that I'm here.