'It's never too late to get help'

It took Kevin O'Duffy five attempts to muster the courage to walk through the door of the Tullamore Further Education Centre to seek help with his literacy problems, but the Shannonbridge farmer says that it was “the best thing I ever done”.

When Kevin started school it was a very different era to today's education system.

“Teachers were very strict... I didn't like school. It took a lot out of me. Reading was not a great problem. It was spelling I had a problem with. If I saw a word on a book or a piece of paper and then tried to spell I wouldn't be able to even though I'd know what it was or what it meant.”

After going to technical school and “struggling” to pass his Group Cert, Kevin left formal education and like many young Offaly men of his generation got taken on as an apprentice fitter with Bord na Mona.

At the start there was little writing involved and being good at technical drawing, he got by.

However as time went by, he and his colleagues had to complete job cards and write reports and this was when his problem with spelling really became an issue.

“I could write but I couldn't spell and I knew that someone like a supervisor or a manager was going to see the report. I would feel embarrassed. I didn't want to know that I had a problem.”

One of his colleagues who worked in the office saw that he had a problem and helped him out until Kevin took early redundancy almost twenty years ago.

Now a full-time farmer, Kevin says that his literacy issues came to the fore again due to an increase in bureaucracy courtesy of Brussels.

“With the EU and all that more forms were coming through the door and they had to be filled so I decided then that I needed help

“There is an adult education centre in Tullamore and I rang them up. I spoke to a lady, she said come in and we'll have a discussion. I drove the 25 miles from my home got as far as door step and wouldn't go in. I was afraid to go in. I didn't know who would be in there. I was embarrassed. I didn't know what to expect so I went home. I done that four times, drove there and wouldn't go in the door. I was terrified in case someone would recognise me.”

After four failed attempts, Kevin “grabbed the bull by the horns” and went in. After he was assessed, he was put into a group with four other men. Since then, he says, he hasn't looked back.

Eager to give something back, Kevin became heavily involved in the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) and served on the organisations national executive and as chairman of its student sub-committee for a number of years.

For over a decade now, he has also manned the NALA stand at the National Ploughing Championships, where he has heard many stories similar to his own.

In his mid 40s when he addressed his literacy issues, he says that the most important message to get out to people is that “it's never too late to get help”.

“The main thing is to get the word out there to not be afraid and admit that you have a problem,” he says.