Never Know Your Place: Memoir of a Rulebreaker

(Paperback)

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Description

Every young person is looking for freedom,
but some have to fight harder than others

In 1960s Ireland there was a special place for disabled children: behind the walls of an institution, cut off from the rest of society.

At just nine years old, Martin Naughton was one of these children. Along with his younger sister Barbara he was sent to a Dublin institution, far away from his Irish-speaking home in Spiddal.

But Martin wouldnt be sidelined. With the help of some unexpected characters and an unlikely encounter with his Celtic Football heroes he began to change the way a generation of young disabled people saw themselves.

This is the story of a boy who not only won his own independence, but also led the fight for freedom for all disabled people.

Martin was a formidable and tireless campaigner for the right of people with disabilities to live in their own communities and homes. President Michael D. Higgins

Martin Naughton was a protector, a leader, a gamechanger. In reading this narration of his life, tears filled my eyes. Dr Rosaleen McDonagh, playwright, rights activist and author of Unsettled.

Reviews

simply by bringing Never Know Your Place to completion, Marsden keeps his experiences, ideas and activism alive, the last of which has informed a new generation of activists. So long as that is remembered, Naughton will always be alive in Irish life

-- Sarah Caden, Sunday Independent

a great education for anyone

-- RTE Radio 1s Brendan OConnor show

Martin Naughtons unsparing words in his memoir about his childhood in an institution capture Irish societys attitude for most of the 20th century towards children with disabilities. The arc of Never Know Your Place tracks how his early experiences in St Marys residential hospital in Baldoyle fundamentally informed his political instincts and set him on a path of radical activism. Naughtons memoir is a candid, touching account of an indomitable campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities. He led a movement that secured significant social change in Ireland in 1995 when it won State-funded personal assistance (PA) services, a groundbreaking achievement that gave thousands of people with disabilities the chance to live independently

-- Irish Examiner

brilliant and thought provoking book, 5/5 definitely a top 3 favourite book of the year well done Joanna on co-writing an amazing book, there is literally no other words to describe the book than amazing its really motivated me to keep fighting for better rights for people with disabilities and to make Ireland more accessible and inclusive for people like me

-- Emma Ward

Author Bio

Martin Naughton (19542016) was a disabled activist from Spiddal, County Galway, who lived most of his life in Baldoyle in north Dublin. Having experienced institutionalisation and fought hard for his freedom, he became a life-long advocate for the right of disabled people to live independently. Through his personal friendships with American activists, he was instrumental in spreading the Independent Living movement to Ireland, and in the mid-1990s he led the landmark political campaign for Personal Assistant services. His later achievements include founding the ENIL Freedom Drive, a biennial event which brings disabled people from Europe together in Brussels to highlight the right to Independent Living.

Joanna Marsden is a writer and independent radio documentary-maker who lives in Dn Laoghaire. She writes for publications including The Irish Times and got to know Martin when she interviewed him for a book about how life had changed for disabled people in Ireland. Her projects include making documentaries for Newstalk and RT Lyric FM, and contributing to TULCA Festival of Visual Arts.