Two Norries presenter urges young people to find path to further education

Timmy Long told students there are many ways to pursue education and that for those who learn differently, help and other routes to education are available

Timmy Long: 'The education system is there for anyone who needs help – it’s just all about asking for it.' Picture: Eddie O'Hare

One of the two men behind the successful Two Norries podcast has urged teenagers who may be struggling with learning in school to ask for help to find the right path to further education.

Timmy Long, who lived a chaotic life of addiction and crime before getting sober a decade ago and getting a college degree, told guests at the launch of College Awareness Week at his old secondary school in Cork City that education is critical to everybody’s story.

“It helps you to understand how the world works, it gives us confidence, helps your self-esteem, helps us to get into certain groups,” he told the gathering at Terence MacSwiney College in Hollyhill.

“It’s not one route for all – that is the whole point here. Everybody is so different and if there is a student here who believes they have some form of learning difference, put your hand up, ask your teacher, get that assessment. It helps you to understand yourself.” 

Mr Long, who grew up in Ardcullen, Hollyhill, co-presents the Two Norries weekly podcast with James Leonard. They are embarking on a countrywide tour next year to change the conversation around mental health, addiction and recovery. 

James Leonard and Timmy Long, who host the Two Norries podcast, at Bell's Field in Cork City. File picture: Larry Cummins

He was invited to speak alongside Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the launch of the College Awareness Week campaign, which promotes the benefits of a post-secondary education plan and aims to support students to become “college ready” and showcases local role models.

Mr Long said education was the last thing on his mind when he started in Terence MacSwiney College as a 12-year-old. He said school was stressful for him because of undiagnosed dyslexia.

He said he left school aged 15 to go into a trade, carpentry and joinery, but failed his trade exams because his “education wasn’t up to standard”.

Alcohol and drug addiction

He later fell into alcohol and drug addiction before being sent to prison, where at the age of 30, he did the equivalent of the Junior Cert before his release. He went on to complete Fetac courses at St John’s College of Further Education, which in turn, allowed him to get a qualification as a carpenter and joiner.

Those qualifications led him to an honours degree in construction management at Munster Technological University, where he was finally diagnosed as dyslexic at the age of 36.

“When I was told that with dyslexia you have short-term memory issues, reading difficulties, spelling difficulties, that helped me so much to understand that I wasn’t stupid, that I wasn’t thick anymore, as I had believed,” he said.

“Growing up, I was always at the back of the class because I wasn’t able to read and I was disruptive as well. I struggled. I really, really struggled.

“But my education later on in life helped me to learn about life, to understand myself and it has helped me to grow as a human being.” 

He told students there are many ways to pursue education and that for those who learn differently, help and other routes to education are available.

“The education system is there for anyone who needs help – it’s just all about asking for it,” he said.