Flying Scotsman backs local track
Thursday, 7 August 2008
John Mooney, proprietor, welcomes Sir Jackie Stewart to the Dunadry Hotel on Friday when he was the special guest at a Charity Lunch in aid of the Dyslexia Association. Also included in the photograph is David Burnside MLA, who helped organise the event.
FANS of motor racing last week packed out the Dunadry Inn for a special charity fundraising lunch with Formula 1 legend, Sir Jackie Stewart.
Sponsored by South Antrim MLA, David Burnside, the event was organised to raise money for the Northern Ireland Dyslexia Association and followed a morning tour of the Antrim Civic Centre where Sir Jackie spoke about his experiences as a dyslexia sufferer.
He outlined the frustration he experienced as a youth, when dyslexia was not the acknowledged condition it is today, and gave his support to initiatives, such as the Essential Skills programme, which focuses on the areas of reading, writing and information communications technology (ICT).
Attended by the Minister for Employment and Learning, Sir Reg Empey, he said the issue of dyslexia was just one of the challenges of his department and the Essential Skills programme.
He said: "More than a quarter of the population can't understand the instructions on a medicine bottle or a bus timetable. While this particular function is about dyslexia, Jackie nevertheless made the point that most of the problems are not diagnosed in time.
“It was a stunning address and everybody was very impressed. If Jackie Stewart, with his success, can stand up and say that he can't even recite the alphabet then if you suffer from any kind of difficulties then you know that your company will be of the very best."
Sir Jackie, speaking at the Dunadry Inn, said: "I keep telling people that it doesn't matter who you are, just that if you can do one thing well then that's all you need. I think that if I hadn't won at the World Championships three times I would have won the window cleaning championships three time, because I'm very good at cleaning windows!
“Ten per cent of the population have dyslexia, and you can't write off ten per cent of any population in any country. We have got to have education to help those people in the future.
“Jackie Stewart was very lucky - sometimes sports allow that to happen. But Muhammed Ali, Leonardo Da Vinci and Einstein all had dyslexia, so you don't have to be a total loss because of it."
