Fiacre Ryan’s story to this point is utterly compelling. He was the first non-verbal autistic student to sit the Irish Leaving Cert, achieving honours marks in Maths, English & History. Until the age of 13, Fiacre had no means of communicating with his family or the outside world. His family believed his non-verbal autism had effectively locked him out of an ability to engage with the world. Their perception was that he was incapable of ‘learning’ beyond any basic form of communication. Th...

A moving and insightful anthology of personal essays by Irish autistic adults. Wired Our Own Way: An Anthology of Irish Autistic Voices is the first collection of personal essays written by autistic Irish adults.One in twenty-seven Irish school children are now diagnosed as autistic, and autism is entering the general population’s consciousness much louder than it did in the past. As understanding about autism spreads, more and more adults are now finding out that ...