Irish Sunday Mirror

Being deaf means my world has no barriers of language

Sean reveals passion for travelling and teaching kids in documentar­y

- BY JIM GALLAGHER

using sign language. I love being able to travel the world without language barriers and I love coming back here to teach the next generation of deaf kids all about my travels and my life experience­s. “This is who I am and I want to leave it that way. I’m perfectly happy just as I am.” Sean was speaking to a new RTE documentar­y, Deafening, about people born with no hearing who refuse to let the disability to hold them back. He explained that when he was a boy deaf people were only expected to

Sean Herlihy take blue collar jobs but that society has now changed.

Sean, who works at Dublin’s Holy Family School for the Deaf, said: “My biggest passion is teaching but a close second is travelling and I have travelled all over the world.

SCARY

“Being deaf did not deter me one little bit. If anything it spurred me on.”

He revealed he had two frightenin­g incidents in Colombia and Venezuela.

However, they paled into insignific­ance compared to his arrival in Istanbul in June last year just as terrorists attacked Ataturk airport, killing 44 people. Sean arrived in Istanbul just after terrorists attacked airport

Sean admitted it was a very terrifying ordeal but it didn’t affect his passion for adventure, saying: “I love meeting deaf people all over the world.

“Those who sign can talk to anyone anywhere in the world and it doesn’t matter where they’re from.

“It only takes a minute to adapt to each other’s sign language and then we can communicat­e fluently.”

He hoped to teach his pupils that they can do anything in life.

Sean explained: “Educating deaf children is my passion. I love my job. I find it easy to connect with my students.

“I have such empathy for deaf children as I know what they need. I am really proud when I manage to really get through to a student.

“I love making them aware of their potential and love seeing them succeed. To be back teaching in the school I attended as a child is wonderful.”

Deafening is on RTE One on Thursday at 10.15pm.

news@irishmirro­r.ie

I love travelling the world... then coming back to tell deaf kids about my experience­s SEAN HERLIHY ON HIS PASSION FOR TEACHING & ADVENTURE

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