When Caren McAteer was just four years of age, she knew she wanted to be a vet. And her background in agriculture, her upbringing, and a sound work ethic - instilled in her by parents Pauline and Jimmy - set her on a trajectory to achieve that aim.

"I remember seeing a Belgian Blue cow calving at home - my father brought us out to watch - and I decided there and then that I wanted to be a vet," Caren told Agriland.

"My father would have asked me would I not be a doctor or a teacher, and I just had no interest."

Fast-forward to now, following years of working in practice, Caren is a superintending veterinary inspector at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM).

She is also a lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT), where she has taught on the agricultural science and veterinary nursing courses for the last 10 years.

It was Caren's mother who was the farmer in the family, while her father was a lorry driver. But both supported each other to build up a fledgling dairy-farming enterprise - and a family of their own, Caren, Sinéad, Seamus and David - that all started with that Belgian Blue.

Caren recalled:

"When I was a child, we were only starting out on the farm. My grandmother was a dairy farmer, and my mother became a dairy farmer too, which would have been unusual at the time.

Over the years, one heifer calf turned into about 250, and one acre turned into about 200, and now her mother and brother, David, are in partnership together at the family farm in Co. Meath.

When the time came for Caren to start her third-level veterinary training at University College Dublin, she had already been milking cows for Farm Relief Services for two years, which she continued throughout her five years of study.

During the holidays this was a full-time gig, and back at college it became the weekend job.

"It was really important that I could find a job that would suit study, so I started milking cows with farm relief and I worked there for seven years. I ended up working with two permanent farmers at the weekends from that, and they were fantastic!"

"Our father was a great believer that our education was our own investment and he was right. Having us all work to pay our rent and fees was also a great way to ensure that none of us failed our exams."

All jobs and professions throw up challenges and Caren has experienced a few in her time as a vet.

Having her children - Cáít (10), Seanán (6), and Sadbh (5) - while working in practice, was one such challenge (or three).

There are issues to be resolved within the industry - still - around maternity-leave entitlements; a lack of flexibility for vets after they have given birth; job-sharing opportunities; or just being able to take maternity leave if they are self-employed.

The disparity between private-practice maternity benefits and those provided in the civil service must also be addressed, Caren said.

"But with my first pregnancy, I was the first to get pregnant [in that practice] and nobody really knew how to handle it. And, you are nearly a little bit macho as a female vet in that situation, that you can just carry on.

Ever before she became a vet, Caren remembered that there was an attitude at the time that it was not a profession for girls.

"There was the thinking [back then] that veterinary isn't for girls, that you wouldn't be strong enough. But I went out of my way to point out that women were just as well-able to do the job as men, that it wasn't about strength, it was about technique at the end of the day. 

And, the funny thing about that particular farmer is that once Caren qualified as a vet, he became one of her most loyal clients and, when she left the practice, he cried to see her go.

Interestingly, female farmers were that bit more difficult to impress, in Caren's experience.

"But when you cracked them, they were the loyalist people to me, and still are. Some of them would have followed me to the different practices where I worked, they were that loyal. But women are hard on one another."

When asked why she thinks that is the case, Caren said:

"I think it is because of what the female farmers have been through themselves, and what they have had to do to prove themselves, and that they are as good as any male farmer."

There is no doubting that hard work and determination have aided Caren's career progression, but so too have the people in her life - both male and female.

"Men in my life have played a huge part in helping me go further because they had confidence in me, and gave me great encouragement. I was never held back at all. 

The saying goes, 'behind every great man is a great woman' but for Caren the opposite is also true, especially when it comes to husband, Conor, whom she met when she was in her third year of college.

"There is a great man behind me, who supported me the whole way and never held me back when I wanted to go further," she said.

And that male support has been there in other areas too - from the vets she has worked for; the farmers she proved herself to; her line managers in the DAFM; and her colleagues and peers.

One such colleague, Caren is eager to remember, is the late Shane Dromgoole, whose 10-year anniversary falls around this time.

Shane, who would have been godfather to Caren's first child, epitomised everything that a vet should be in life, she said.

"He was professional, respectful, kind and generous with his time, and a very caring person. 

Elaborating, she continued:

"He was afraid that I wouldn't do as well as I could have in my exams at that time so he paid my rent for the last five months of college to get me through."

Subsequently, the two worked together for five years, and there were plans to go into partnership. But it wasn't to be.

Caren has had strong and solid role models and supports along her path through life, and she seems just as eager pay that forward herself in a practical and meaningful way.

Working with the DAFM, the Veterinary Council of Ireland and DKIT, she was instrumental in developing a level-eight qualification at DKIT that would allow veterinary-nursing graduates to be considered for employment at the DAFM. 

"They would have needed a level eight to join the DAFM but they would have had a level seven [through the degree]. So, we managed to get an add-on year, which would give the veterinary-nurse graduates that level eight, so they could join the DAFM as agricultural officers."

The first intake of veterinary-nurse graduates to the DAFM happened in 2021.

"I am very proud of that," Caren said.