Senator Lynn Ruane's memoir, People Like Me, was launched last night. It's a moving and revealing account of growing up in Tallaght and how she overcame a difficult period of drug use in her teens to return to education and ultimately become involved in politics and community work.

Lynn says there was no pattern of drug use in her family, so her mother "wouldn't have known what to look out for. I was just a normal child."

Things began to unravel in her early teens, and she also experienced the trauma of losing one of best friends, who was hit by a bus at the age of 14.

"It was the first time I was faced with how quick life can be taken away from you and how young I was, and then all of a sudden so many of my friends started dying." She estimates that over 40 of her peers have died, from close friends to classmates.

Lynn says it's only now that she realises this wasn't a normal situation.

"Somehow in our communities when that's happening so much, we think that's just the way it is. We don't realise until we come out of that space that it's not supposed to be like that. We're not supposed to be dying so young and taking such risk with our lives."

"I'm not involved in chaotic drug use or criminality, but I'm still very much committed to my community, and I see my work now as a continuation of the life that I lived. Everything I experienced in the book is what I fight for in the Seanad."

She says the work she does has the support of people in her community: "They know that I'm still me, representing who I am and who they are in a respectful manner."

She also feels she has the backing of many people she has encountered in politics.

"Many have surprised me. I think people have begun to accept that when I speak, I'm speaking from very real experience, and they don't try and question that."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen