Proinsias De Rossa is a Prominent Politician in Ireland

Proinsias De Rossa may not be known to the world at large but he is one of the prominent politicians in Ireland in the last half century. His political career started in 1956 at age 16 when he joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and became politically active with the Sinn Fein party. He served seven months in prison at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin for his activities with the IRA. Afterwards he began a hardworking political career that saw him become the Leader of the Workers Party from 1988 to 1992. Later he had important positions such as Ireland’s Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997, as well as Leader of Democratic Left from 1992 to 1999. Furthermore, he was a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2012. DeRossa was elected to the Teachta Dala, the lower chamber of the Irish Parliament, in 1982 and served until 2002, representing a district in his native Dublin.

Proinsias De Rossa is one of the most Irish accomplished politicians in recent memory yet he never let his stuttering stand in his way.

When he stepped down from his seat in Parliament in 2012, he said, “My work as a public representative for 30 years, and before that my 25 years as a grassroots political activist, has always been motivated with a desire to change society for the better. I have dedicated all my energies to the pursuit of peace and the elimination of poverty and inequality through peaceful change, and the deepening of democracy.”

Throughout his career in the public eye, De Rossa regularly mentioned his stuttering. A July 14, 1997 article in the Irish Times titled “School Days Were Not Happy for Proinsias De Rossa” quotes him as saying, “I looked forward to school but once I got there I detested it. I was shy and it wasn’t until I actually started school that I became aware I had a stammer.”

An article in the Irish Examiner on January 17, 2012, “De Rossa Set to Retire After 13 Years as an MEP”, conveyed how the prominent politician refused to let his stuttering sidetrack his career. “Mr. De Rossa, who never let a prominent stammer hold him back in public life, said he spent long enough in front line politics.”

In 2010, there was an incident involving De Rossa that received national attention. He was being interviewed by phone on RTE radio by Pat Kenny, when someone broke in and apparently made the repeated sound of a stammer in a mocking fashion. An investigation by RTE, the national broadcaster of Ireland, was unable to figure out what the sound was or where it had come from. Some observers felt it was bad prank to ridicule De Rossa’s stuttering. An April 15, 2010, article in the Irish Independent began with, “RTE has denied responsibility for an embarrassing phone line interruption during Pat Kenny’s interview with Proisinias De Rossa. Listeners to Mr. Kenny’s radio show heard what appeared to be someone mimicking the sound of a stutter live on the air.”

Proisinias De Rossa is affiliated with the Irish Stammering Association and from the start of his career has always publicly acknowledged his stuttering. Ireland is fortunate to have such a distinguished and high-profile person who stutters to be both an inspiration and a role model.

Hide on More News:

Hide

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.

Darren Sproles

Darren Sproles, a former player for The Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers, made history in 2007 when he became the first player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt for his first two NFL touchdowns in the same game. In 2021, he was selected to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.