I’m not much of a tweeter, but I keep an eye on people that I might learn something from or people I admire. I find Twitter a much better forum than the fickle Facebook. A few weeks back Tommy Tiernan interviewed James Leonard from the north side of Cork city about his life now and his recovery from heroin addiction. I was blown away by the interview. My reaction was to follow him on Twitter.

Accidents and graduation

As I was feeding the calves yesterday morning I heard that there had been a fatal accident on Harbour View Road at Knocknaheeny. Later, we heard that it was near the roundabout. I pass there on average six times a week. If I leave the house, turn left and keep driving for 10 minutes I’d be at the scene of the accident. It is also right next to Terence MacSwiney Community College. I taught cookery there to young mothers in the 80s and 90s. They were warm and friendly girls but struggling to rear their children and many whom I encountered had difficult home lives.

Cartoon by Clyde Delaney.

This is an area with salt-of-the-earth people who are often defined and limited by an address. In ways, it seems a faraway community from us with high unemployment and social problems yet we all now belong to the same community of Cork city. The area gets bad press and James explained in his interview that growing up there, although University College Cork is only 15 minutes away, he never even considered it as a possibility.

The fun had gone out of life and he was on a downward spiral into crime to feed his habit

His Dad was in and out of prison and as a result his home life was difficult and negative. He searched for fun elsewhere and found it in drugs and joyriding. He said there were no consequences to anything. “You’d drive into a ditch, flip over, get out and walk home.” By then, James was stuck in an abyss of deprivation.

At 21, he was introduced to heroin. He found out that you could smoke it in tinfoil and naïvely he thought this was a safe way to do it. It wasn’t long before “there was no more crack” from it all. The fun had gone out of life and he was on a downward spiral into crime to feed his habit.

He said: “I was in and out of prison for short visits but I felt I was brought up better than that.” There was no empathy, his identity was gone and James was homeless.

Rescue

He described how one night he was strung out on heroin, almost unconscious on the pavement on Blarney Street. Two gardaí were called and an ambulance came and his life was saved.

They helped him believe in recovery and more importantly in himself

Those same gardaí came to talk to him a while later telling him how close he came to death and how he needed help. They put him in contact with the relevant services.

James ended up at St Francis Farm which is a working farm in Co Carlow and treatment centre for addicts. They helped him believe in recovery and more importantly in himself.

They treated him with dignity. He started with a community employment scheme and went onto university. James has been working for Simon for over a year.

Different lives

On that day of the crash, James Leonard was conferred with a first-class honours master’s degree in criminology from UCC. Poignantly he tweeted: “Thank you everyone for your well wishes today. I won’t be posting anything today from the graduation out of respect for the families involved in last night’s tragedy in Knocknaheeny. Life is precious.”

James has a full understanding of how precious life really is. He values his community. He also understands loss. That day, Kimberly O’Connor lost her life at 16. The future is very different for the two boys that were also in the car.

You can turn your life around. You have hope

Thank you to Tommy Tiernan and his researchers who brought us this powerful interview. It is one of the best interviews I’ve seen on TV in a long time. In James’s words: “You can turn your life around. You have hope.” I believe in hope too.

Best wishes and congratulations James. I will continue to follow you on Twitter. Heartfelt sympathy to the families connected to the tragedy and especially to Kimberly’s family. Life is indeed precious.