This Much I Know: Adam Harris

Adam Harris, AsIAm

I like the structure and rhythm of work. If I’m not busy I get anxious.

The biggest challenge I’ve faced so far was growing up different to other people, as someone on the spectrum.

My development was different to that of other children. If I was interested in a subject I could become very focused on it but if I wasn’t interested in something, I hated it. I always loved history and could talk for hours about ancient Egypt and The Tudors and the 1916 Rising, which made it hard to relate to other children as they had different interests. Things got easier for me in the second half of my teens when I became a lot more social and developed friendships with my peers.

My parents and my brother, Simon [Minister for Education] and my sister, Gemma, were always incredibly supportive. Mum is a Montessori teacher and an SNA; and dad was a taxi driver. My mum in particular was a complete rock star when it came to my education. I was in special education for three years but then moved to our local national school and then to St Aidan’s in Greystones. If someone is on the autism spectrum, there can be a tendency to focus on the weaknesses, rather than the strengths. But there are a lot of strengths and I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who could see that and who were completely committed to the idea of inclusion.

I’m massively proud of my brother, Simon — especially of his work during Covid-19.

Somehow still standing and working hard for us all @SimonHarrisTD #proud pic.twitter.com/oSLzWILnVi

— Adam Harris (@AdamPHarris) April 7, 2020

My autism actually led him into his political career as, to begin with, he got involved in campaigning for more awareness and knowledge of autism.

Adam and Simon Harris

When I was 18, I dropped out of Social Science at UCD to set up the charity AsIAm to help those with autism. There was no reason for it to work, but it did. We’ve achieved some great things — like getting DCU to become the first autism-friendly university in the world and creating autism-friendly shopping with SuperValu. But if I could change one thing in our society it would be our tendency to still think there is only one acceptable way to do things. We have moved people with autism into the mainstream, but there is still work to be done on changing attitudes.

Work is central to my life but it’s not a burden to me. I love my job. Even if I’m on holidays, I have a desire to know what’s going on at the office.

I’m not going to represent Ireland in the Olympics any time soon but I do keep fit by walking my two dogs by the sea.

I love living in Greystones but I spend quite a bit of time in Dublin as that’s where my partner, Daniel, is based. We met in Cork when he was working in a secondary school there and I was there for a project.

My first media appearance was on The Late Late. I was always very talkative and an extrovert — which people don’t always associate with autism — and did a lot of debating in secondary school but it still took me a while to get used to speaking in public. You only get good at it by doing it.

I believe ambition is more important than talent but the most important thing of all is hard work and having a vision, or rather, having an idea that’s time has come.

My biggest extravagance is buying really good cuts of meat for Sunday dinner. I adore my Sunday roasts.

My biggest fault is that I’m very disorganised.

My idea of misery is having to do paperwork.

The thing that most irritates me about other people is negativity. I’m all for ideas and solutions rather than moaning and groaning.

My idea of bliss is creating new ideas and projects.

Besides work, I’m still a complete history buff and also love constructing things with my huge Lego collection.

The best advice I’ve ever received is that challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

I do believe in some kind of afterlife although I find it very hard to imagine what it is like.

So far life has taught me that if we work together, we really can achieve anything.

• Adam Harris is the Founder and CEO of AsIAm, Ireland’s National Autism Charity. Adam founded the organisation based on his own experiences of growing up on the autism spectrum.