A DONEGAL man has spoken of how an Oscar-winning film raising awareness of stutters and stammers can help young people to overcome them.
With the recent Oscar success of the Irish short film ‘Stutterer’, Ciaran McGonagle went on the Anton Savage Show on Today FM to talk about overcoming his stutter and how he is now helping others overcome theirs.
“I began to stutter at around the age of 4. I was quite ‘overt’, meaning it was quite pronounced up until my teenage years when I started to try to cover up my stutter. I learned tricks and techniques that aided me in hiding who I really was,” said Ciaran.
“These techniques, however, only really worked in certain situations and when the pressure was on my speech would fall apart and my confidence would take a severe blow.
“I continued to hide my stutter from everyone, including myself, until my early twenties when I realised that I really had to address the problem. It was causing huge frustrations in my career and personal life.”
Ciaran went on to describe how he overcame his stutter telling Anton having a stutter was like an ice-berg – 10% of the problem is the physical stutter – 90% is an emotional struggle.
In 2006, aged 26, he rang Joe O’Donnell in The McGuire Programme but it took two years to pluck up the courage to attend his first class.
It worked, and Ciaran now helps others to overcome their stutters.
He reveals that 90% of stutterers can’t say their own name and the cause of a stutter is unknown – it could be a traumatic experience or illness. The McGuire Programme has around 9,000 members worldwide and 1,500 in Ireland alone.
You can contact the McGuire Programme through www.stammering.ie
