Stuck for Words - Mondays on RTE1

“I left school not being able to write my own name. The biggest problem with not being able to read and write is that people will find out the problem – you just build up a fear in yourself. You just don’t want anyone to know,” says Tom Flynn from Knocklong, Co. Limerick who features in a new RTE TV series ‘Stuck for Words’. Like many people his age, Tom left school without being able to read and write and spent many years living with the fear of being found out. “I left school at 14 and got work on a farm because there was no reading and writing on that. I was always afraid people would look down on me because when you can’t read and write you feel you can’t talk to people who are more education than you.” Attending local dances, buying cattle at the mart, and going to restaurants were a source of great fear for Tom, as he couldn’t fill out forms or read a menu, so he rarely went out. That is until he took the brave step back into education and since then he has never looked back.

“This is going to be like school, I had in my own mind. But when I got in there it was completely different. It was a different setting altogether. The first thing I did was learn to write my own name!” says Tom. 8 years on, he’s still learning. And he has one big ambition - to sing a full song from a page at the local ‘rambling house’ in his local community. Most of us take reading and writing for granted but for thousands of Irish it’s a constant struggle. ‘Stuck for Words’, a new 6-part RTE documentary, tells the story of some of these people and the profound impact going back to education is having on their lives. On Monday 17 May at 7.30pm on RTE One, Tom tells his story and how learning to read is allowing him to lead a fuller life. “I never went near a library, that’s one thing I’m going to do now. I look forward to that now,” says Tom. ‘Stuck for Words’ is a personal transformation series that focuses on the journey of each individual person. It is a fresh, honest, often moving and insightful look at how people cope with having to learn the basic skills many of us take for granted. One in four adults in Ireland have difficulties with basic reading and writing skills, enough to affect their everyday lives. Many people invest a lot of time and energy into hiding this, due to the stigma associated with having literacy difficulties in today's society. This series aims to dispel this stigma and deepen our understanding of the importance of good literacy skills in 21st century Ireland. ‘Stuck for Words’ is a joint project between RTÉ and the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) with support from the BCI Sound & Vision fund. It will be broadcast on RTÉ One Television on Monday evenings at 7.30pm from the 10th of May.