In December, a 6th class St. Joseph’s pupil, Niall O’Dwyer, traveled to Dublin as the Wexford winner of the national essay writing competition entitled ‘Someone Like Me’, run by the Department of Justice and Equality. It was a great honour for St. Joseph’s to have Niall represent our school as the county winner. At a ceremony held in Áras an Úachtaráin, Niall was awarded with a €200 voucher for himself and €2000 worth of IT equipment for his school by  Aodhán Ó Riordáin, Minister of State for Equality and Brent Pope, a well known rugby analyst and children’s author. A great day was had by Niall and his family, we only wish we could’ve all been there to cheer him on. 

Someone like me

Have you ever felt stupid? Like you know nothing and the rest of the class knows everything. Well, welcome to my life. I felt like the stupidest in the class. My mum reassured me and explained that I had dyslexia, of course that never stopped kids laughing at me when I read. For some reason words seemed like gibberish to me. In a class where everyone can read I felt inadequate. One small difference gave others an excuse to pick me last for everything. You can feel alone in a class of 30 people.

However now that I’m in secondary school everything is different. I’m in a class with others with dyslexia. Teachers don’t care that I read slowly and now I’m improving at all the subjects I failed. I have loads of friends who don’t care how smart I am. I used to pretend that I wasn’t dyslexic and hide my disability. But my new teacher said “Every day you pretend to be something you’re not, you’re lying to yourself. And the best way to get over a lie is to tell the truth. So be proud of who you are, cause no matter what, someone will accept you.               By Niall O’ Dwyer