A new memoir by career social worker and author Patrick O’Dea has just been published. His third book - I, who had it figured out! – documents O’Dea’s personal experience of 40 years as a social worker in Ireland, including 17 years teaching social work at Trinity College, Dublin.

The memoir documents coming of age in 1970s Ireland. Taking his place as a social worker, O’Dea grapples with real lives, while trying to keep faith with social work that aspires to the “empowerment and liberation of people,” as he reflects on his professional journey.

O’Dea’s latest book has attracted a series of robust endorsements. Brid Featherstone, Professor of Social Work, University of Huddersfield, describes the book as “Beautifully written, full of hard-won wisdom, this short memoir asks us to reflect on hope in its many guises and how it has animated a life well lived.”

Former Oxford Vice-Chancellor, Dame Louise Richardson, hails the book as required reading: “Paddy O'Dea's reflections on his path, should be required reading for aspiring young social workers," while Harry Ferguson, Professor of Social Work at the University of Birmingham says the memoir is a ‘tour de force’: “A wonderfully idiosyncratic and entertaining account of a life devoted to care, love, relationships, equality, Dublin, Ireland and the central place of social work within it.”

This is Patrick O’Dea’s third book, following A Class of our own (1994) and Dear Frankie (1998).

I, who had it figured out! is now available to purchase on paperback and Kindle. To purchase, visit HERE.