20/02/2026
➡️For years, my parents tried, to varying success and failure, to get me into reading. Dyslexia disrupted that journey. I found books static and boring. I loved the outside world of activity and adventure. Climbing trees, hoarding conkers, and breaking bones. That was my early childhood.
➡️And so for years I flirted with reading, I’d buy books only to leave them unread. I loved poetry. They were short and abstract and made so much sense to me.
➡️I was only 13 when I first read The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot. It blew my head right off my shoulders. No other poem hit me like that poem did. It was the voice, the distinctive voice of the narrator.
➡️The reason I’m talking about all of this is because Saturday, February 28 is Ireland Reads Day. Ireland Reads is a national campaign inspiring people to ‘get lost in a good book’.
➡️Getting your children into the world of reading could be one of the most important gifts you give them.