A Cork man who overcame a heroin addiction is set to graduate with a Masters degree.
James Leonard won the hearts of the nation after a compelling interview on The Tommy Tiernan Show last month.
And today, Thursday, he will graduate from University College Cork with a first-class honours in criminology.
He told the RTE Saturday night chat show how he was introduced to heroin in prison when he was 21 years old and thought by smoking it he was using it "safely".
But James learned the hard way and became addicted to the dangerous drug.
However, the Cork man was able to get past his addiction and go back to college.
He said: "There's nothing glamorous about it, every day is a struggle.
"You feel like sh*t, you're treated like sh*t. Society looks at heroin addicts as the worst in society."
Speaking of ahead of Thursday’s conferring, Leonard told how criminology was the natural choice of course for him.
He said: “During my undergraduate in Youth and Community Cork, I completed two placements at Probation Service funded projects. I also researched drug policy for my undergrad dissertation.
“The Criminology masters was the natural choice for me to get a more in depth understanding of theories and perspectives related to deviance, organised crime, recovery, desistance, youth justice, etc.”
