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Ireland is an addict and alcohol is just the tip of the iceberg

13/11/2015

6 Comments

 
Picture

The Irish Times, November 13th 2015.  

Don’t wash your dirty linen in public. This has been a mantra that has kept Ireland buried in shame for too long. It has caused untold hurt and allowed a culture of silent suffering to prevail. Why the collusion? Why do we not want to talk about the national secrets that call out to us from the mirror?
​
Natasha Eddery Dunsdon, daughter of celebrated jockey Pat Eddery, helped change this when she posted an emotional tribute on social media following her father’s recent death. She lifted a veil on what many knew but few were prepared to mention, that her father, the national hero, had been consumed by years of alcoholism.

“The last time I saw him face to face was when I brought him home from rehab and he drank straight away. I turned to him and said “dad if you choose to drink over health and family, I can’t be part of that life for you.” Sadly his addiction was too strong and he couldn’t overcome it. My sibling and his close friends did all we could to help him battle his illness, but we lost in the end.” she wrote.

“It has been so sad to witness his decline and my siblings and I knew that we would lose him to his demon drink. But that said, I loved him so much and I had probably the best childhood anyone could ask for. I was so proud and still am so proud to be his daughter, he was an amazing jockey, father and husband, but in the end he was taken over by a terrible disease. I don’t think of that man, the alcoholic, he wasn’t my dad. My dad was kind, sweet, emotional and, while he never said much, I know he loved us all very much.” she concluded in the moving post which has gone viral.

In her courageous sharing Natasha has opened up a conversation about the challenges of what it means to be human and the suffering that this brings with it. It is no surprise that her tribute has struck a chord and shattered the silence surrounding her father’s struggles. This is a silence that permeates the country’s consciousness. It pretends silence is the same as respect, while pushing the pain deeper into the crevices of the national soul.

Alcohol abuse plagues this land and affects every family. Right now there are men and women in villages, towns, cities, and sitting rooms all over Ireland who are numbing the pains of life that they find too much to bare.

Every night our over stretched ambulance staff deliver hordes of half conscious, battered and intoxicated bodies to nurses who are already at breaking point. At weekends, fifteen year olds gather in dark parks, downing cider and vodka as a corrupted rites of passage into adulthood. Elsewhere masses of underage boys and girls down shots in pubs and clubs while parents, publicans and Gardai look the other way. Meanwhile, phone lines ring late into the night at Childline and at Rape Crisis Centres, while Garda stations and refuges deal with the fall-out from alcohol fueled domestic violence.

Be ‘drink aware’ say the soft alcohol industry campaigns while continuing to pump out advertising targeted at young people at concerts and sporting events. Booze culture is everywhere. Visiting dignitaries are forced to hold a pint of Diageo’s finest for the obligatory photo call and national legislators down a few scoops before voting on late night legislation. “Lighten up” we’re told. “Shure it’s all only a bit of craic”. Except it isn’t.

Alcohol isn’t the problem here. Addiction is, more so the denial of it. Ireland is an addict and alcohol is just the tip of the iceberg. We have one of the highest rates of heroin addiction in the world, a growing epidemic of gambling addiction, a problem with food, sugar and obesity, not to mention tobacco, pain killers, internet addiction and pornography.

Addiction is complex. It has many origins and forms, none helped by the prevalence of loneliness and isolation in a world that is supposed to be more connected. Commercial interests and policy makers play a role, as do the market driven evangelists who are stripping back services and destroying the social fabric. Take away our dignity, demonise dissent, and sell us pills and poisons to take away the pain. In a nation ravaged by sexual abuse, and where wounds go unacknowledged and untreated, it’s no wonder so many need to self-medicate.

Ireland’s national recovery has to be about more than short term economics. It must explore the underlying cultural, psychological, and spiritual dysfunction that is costing us billions in health care, and much more in lost potential and shattered lives. For this we need courage, to have uncomfortable conversations and to smash the shame, stigma and silence that are holding Ireland back.

Ruairí McKiernan is a social campaigner, founder of SpunOut.ie and member of the Council of State. His website is www.ruairimckiernan.com

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/ruair%C3%AD-mckiernan-natasha-eddery-has-shattered-the-national-silence-1.2428518


6 Comments
Rory Connor link
13/11/2015 09:34:21 am

I strongly agree with your comment about the "cultural, psychological and spiritual dysfunction" that afflicts us but I think that "smashing the shame, stigma and silence" is hardly the way to go. We have already smashed up a great deal in this country and I don't see a great deal of shame about either. The following is a comment I wrote regarding an article on on "Religious Freedom for the Secular"
http://www.spiked-online.com/freespeechnow/fsn_article/what-about-religious-freedom-for-the-secular#.VkWsjNLhDZ4

The demonization of the Catholic Church in Ireland has helped to create an atmospherics of cynicism and hopelessness and there seems to be no spiritual alternative on the horizon. I cannot see how any further "smashing of stigmas" is going to help us!

<i>I don't know enough about the situation in the USA but in Ireland, atheists and anti-clerics rule the roost. A few years ago we had a government that contained at least three VERY active anti-clerics - two Labour and one Fine Gael. One of the Labour guys had brought down a (mainly) Fianna Fail government in 1994 by falsely suggesting that there was a conspiracy between a Catholic Archbishop and the Attorney General to prevent the extradition of a "paedophile priest" to Northern Ireland.

The second Labour guy BOASTED about his role in the affair in an autobiography written long after it was clear the the allegation was a lie. [He wrote that he told the Prime Minister Albert Reynolds "we've come for a head - either yours or Harry's" (Harry Whelehan the AG)].

The third (Fine Gael) guy had - while opposition spokesman for Justice - demanded a Garda inquiry into a claim that the Catholic Church had been involved in the murder of a young girl 40 years before. The inquiry lasted a year, found no evidence whatsoever to support the claim and a few months later the accuser became Minister for Justice himself.

None of these people suffered in the slightest. Indeed the first guy - Pat Rabbitte - went from being a member of a small left wing party in 1994 to joining with Labour, doing a reverse takeover and becoming the leader of the Party.

Things may not be quite so dramatic in the USA but I doubt if atheists and anti-clerics there have anything to fear from religious people. IN PRACTICE do "secularists and humanists" really face "many problems" in any western country today?</i>

Reply
Rory Connor link
13/11/2015 10:50:55 am

Just going out now, but I will add a second (explanatory) comment I made re the article on the SpikedOnLine website. The problem is that our secular anti-clerical humanists have used such tactics to demonize the Catholic Church as to leave themselves without any ethical ground to rebuild on. It's not possible to make false allegations of child abuse (and murder) against your ideological enemies and then create a a viable alternative culture!

<i>For anyone interested, the 1994 fall of the Irish government amid hysterical allegations of a Church-State conspiracy was described by Richard Webster in his essay "States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland's Folly" (itself part of his book "The Secret of Bryn Estyn" re a child-abuse witch-hunt in Wales).
http://www.richardwebster.net/print/xbrynestynireland.htm

The results of the Garda (police) inquiry into alleged Catholic Church involvement in the murder of a girl in 1970 was briefly described in an Irish Independent article in 2010 "Garda find No Cover-Up in 1970 Murder of Girl"
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gardai-find-no-coverup-in-1970-murder-of-girl-26605757.html

The Irish Times is our main Secular, Humanist, Anti-Clerical newspaper which prides itself on being "Ireland's newspaper of record". I'd love to be able to quote them on the subject of the outcome of an anti-clerical Blood Libel but they seem to have ignored the story.

Things may be more dramatic in Ireland than elsewhere, but the general position in western society is that the secular humanists are on the offensive.</i>

Reply
Jim Dempsey
13/11/2015 11:48:05 am

Great article (one of a number by yourself and others), however unless some sort of grassroots national or even all island campaign is started I'll be still reading this type of article in 10 years time. One positive of late is the GAA at national level divorcing itself from alcohol sponsorship.
An idea I'd like to float:
Make the link at A&E level between the burden of dealing with drunks, drink related injuries and the number of old people on trolleys. Social media might provide the platform . A competitive element e.g. the A&Es publishing the number of drink related admissions and the beds saved etc. When young people switch on to a "cause" the speed and scale of change can be amazing.

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Rory Connor link
13/11/2015 03:35:32 pm

I don't necessarily disagree but is this not just papering over the cracks? See last paragraph in particular re exploring "the underlying cultural, psychological, and spiritual dysfunction" that leads to addiction to drugs, alcohol and much else besides.

Reply
Jim Dempsey
14/11/2015 12:02:21 pm

I think that's a much bigger challenge which is way beyond my ability to comprehend.
For me our young people (the very same as me when I was in my teens) don't realize the consequence of their actions. Excessive drinking, getting drunk and the "funny", "comic" , dangerous and tragic outcomes are accepted and seen as part of socializing in Ireland.
I came from a loving, supportive family with parents who tried their best to provide guidance, a moral code and certain standards that were not negotiable. This got me through that phase of my life, others who didn't have this support system sometimes suffered.
If our young people en mass could change what is acceptable on social occasions even if it's just based on a fear of the consequences it would be a start.
We as a country (government) and a society have failed miserably to discuss these issues maturely because so many of us over indulge, like to point out how "bad" the current crop are and so long as our own kids escape relatively unscathed see it as part of what we are.

Rory Connor link
15/11/2015 11:11:37 pm

That's OK. I could say we will "agree to disagree" but we are probably in agreement - just operating on different levels! Just to conclude in the light of the recent savagery in Paris - our politicians need to concentrate on creating a POSITIVE culture in this country instead of their continuous assault on our traditions and Church. (I hope that's not too negative a comment!)

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