Celebrating World Book Day
Adult literacy student Michael Duffy might be the one person in Ireland who can see the positive side of Roy Keane’s decision not to take part in the World Cup in 2002. The now notorious Saipan debacle was the reason Niall Quinn’s ‘World Cup Diary’ became the first book Michael ever read after returning to adult education to improve his literacy skills.
With World Book Day coming up on Thursday, March 7th, Michael says that he hopes other adults with literacy difficulties get to experience that joy of reading their first book. “I read Niall Quinn’s book for a class assignment in my local Adult Education Centre because I really wanted to get the inside story about what happened at the World Cup. I hadn’t read a book before and I’ll never forget how good it felt when I finished it. Up until then I had always avoided books because I had difficulties reading and writing. I caught the reading bug after that and it’s now one of my main hobbies. Books will open up a whole new world for you no matter what age you are, whether you’re 52 years old or five years old.”
To help more adults improve their literacy skills, Michael is taking part in the National Adult Literacy Agency’s (NALA) ‘Take the first step’ awareness campaign. The campaign uses real-life stories of students to encourage people who have difficulty with reading, writing, maths or technology to get the help they need.
RTÉ will be supporting the campaign by promoting ‘Take the first step’ videos across RTÉ TV, radio, online and social media for the month of March.