Tony Kenny: Find my Way in Life

My walk reflects both on my early memories which go back to my early childhood on the north-side of Cork City and my recently discovered passion for education, horticulture and spending time in nature, particularly fishing on the River Lee.  My walking tour also takes us to discovering places of higher education in Cork City, places that I never imagined myself to be part of, but which are now very much part of my life. My choice of walking tour shows there is no point thinking about people’s personal journeys after prison, if we don’t understand their earlier lives. 

On my walk, I reflect on experiences in my old primary school, where the experience of discouragement has had long-lasting effects on me:

“... I was labelled stupid by some teachers and….I grew up with that throughout my life, as a matter of fact it was one of my core believes about myself and they are still with me today not as strong because I try not to feed the thoughts with negative stuff about myself.” 

My walk shows how early experiences of addiction and ‘getting into trouble’ are deeply intertwined with poverty as well as lack of care by institutions who should have been responsible for supporting me much earlier on.  I am passionate about passing on my experience to others, particularly young people to help them learn from the lessons I had to learn the hard way.   

On my walk, I also organised a stop in Churchfield Community Trust, a community-based organisations, which offers different supports to people with addiction issues and other challenges in life.