My Background
I was born in Dublin in 1977 and am the eldest of three children. I began to show signs of a stutter at around the age of 8, after some mild bullying in school. I struggled with my speech in both primary and secondary school and I compensated for my stutter by keeping my head down and studying hard.
I succeeded in getting accepted into Trinity College Dublin in 1997 to study Business, Economics and Social Studies. Over my years there, I gravitated towards marketing, specifically around branding. My stutter and sexuality were both issues I struggled with during my university career and after graduating with an honours Bachelor of Business Studies Degree, I began the scary prospect of dealing with my speech.
I joined the McGuire Programme in February 2003 (See Stuttering page on this website). Meeting other people who stuttered was like coming home. These were people who understood my struggles because they shared them. On this course I learnt about ‘costal breathing’ which is a control technique used by performers and singers. I also got my first taste of public speaking and loved it. I learned about things like voice projection, claiming your space and having fun. A few weeks after that I joined my local Toastmasters club. I was taught more about these speaking basics along with writing, practicing and presenting a speech. In this more formal setting, timing was essential. I was well and truly bitten by the performance bug. I returned to education and studied Television Presentation and Performance in Ballyfermot College of Further Education. This combined everything I had already learnt along with being a little more informal as anything can happen on a live television set! In terms of my professional career, I got certified as an ESL/EFL English teacher and I travelled to Honduras for the summer of 2005 to teach the local children English for three months before settling into a full-time teaching job.
I was now 31 years old and I felt I had gained good control of my stutter. I wasn’t cured, but I was more comfortable admitting to people that I had a stutter and found that vulnerability and honesty a huge relief. But I was still firmly in the closet and hiding my homosexuality. I wanted to get away and that urge led me to acting school in Vancouver.
This was one of the most exciting times of my life. I felt free from Ireland and free from everyone who knew me. Acting school itself was a challenge with various classes such as movement and script analysis along with accent training. It became clear to me that to be an authentic actor, I would have to come out and I gradually did with my Canadian friends and later everyone back home in Ireland. I became a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community at the ripe old age of 32 and I had to go through all those awkward teenage steps as a grown man. Some were funny, some painful and some plain scary.
Yet, despite all my hard work and progress, I felt lost and frequently depressed. I never felt strong or assertive enough to be a ‘real’ actor and my stutter would hold me back in auditions. I think deep down I knew acting was never going to work and that broke my heart. So much so that on a trip home to Ireland I tried to commit suicide in my Dad’s BMW. Failing at that allowed me to hit rock bottom. I started journaling and that would eventually become my memoir
‘Just One More Drive: The true story of a stuttering homosexual and his race car’.
Writing my book made me really assess who I was and where I was going in life. I had the opportunity to appear on various podcasts and give speeches on topics I raised in the book (See Media page on this website) and that has helped me see that today I have a wealth of lived experience under my belt. It took me a few years to really understand and embrace that fact.
Through all that networking and putting myself out there, I was able to meet extraordinary people and I helped create a course that brings Improvisational skills to people who stutter called ‘The UnBlockables’ (See Stuttering page on this website). Being able to use both my acting training and stuttering tools to help people was worth more than anything I could have imagined as I was giving back to others.
My whole life changed on December 11th 2022. My father died unexpectedly and I was faced with returning home and starting my life anew in Dublin. Dealing with the loss of a parent and the loss of a great life abroad at the same time was a huge lesson in letting go.
That is where you find me now. I have been home for over a year and I have just completed my QQI level 6 ‘Train the Trainer’ certification and I am enthusiastically branching out into the world of public speaking and public speaking training. I am excited to utilize all my past experience and training in public speaking and training to help others become authentic and powerful speakers.