I’m 42 and originally from Monkstown in County Cork. I’ve lived in the West Midlands for the past 14 years and work as a teacher at a school for boys with emotional and behavioural needs in Warwickshire. I try to share my love of horticulture and sustainability with my students and in 2014 we entered the Guardian’s School We’d Like competition – which we won. We are building a community garden to support a local foodbank which we hope will be up and running by the autumn. I’m a member of the young men’s organisation Round Table – activities have included organising a charity beer festival and playing Santa Claus.
I started reading the Guardian in the University College Cork common room in the early 1990s. The paper reflected my developing political attitude and it led to some fervent debates with my father about socialism. When I lived in Spain, I read the Guardian alongside El País to achieve a nice balance to my politics and also to follow the progress of Stoke City FC. Nowadays, I tend to read the Saturday Guardian and my wife gets first dibs on the Family section. I read the excellent sports section first, especially during the football season but I always try to read Tim Lott before the day is out. His writing is heartfelt and he is a role model for men who want to be the best father/husband they can be.
What annoys me about the Guardian are the size-zero models who wear overpriced frivolous fashion in the weekend magazine. Real men and women want to wear affordable clothes which reflect real life. I don’t read the Guardian online as I prefer riffling through the paper copy and I don’t follow Guardian Twitter updates as life is so much more than 140 characters. What keeps me reading is the excellent reportage on current affairs, especially the anti-Corbyn stance – a brilliant piece of reverse psychology!
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