Radio Review: In terms of predictable answers, asking whether Ireland has a problem with alcohol is up there with inquiries about the pope’s religious persuasion or where bears deposit their waste. But it is a question presenters rarely tire of posing.
On Tuesday, Tom Dunne (Newstalk, weekdays) opened his show by speculating on the extent of drinking in Irish society: “Is it as bad as people make it out to be?” It was clearly meant as a rhetorical query. Dunne was joined by Niamh Elliott, a former alcoholic now working with similarly addicted people, who felt drink was so ingrained in the country’s life that it almost ended hers.
Brought up in a teetotal household, Elliott started drinking as a teenager. As a twentysomething, she was consuming alcohol daily. In the grip of depression when she turned 30, she gave up drink after being arrested over an argument with a taxi driver. Now, nearly 10 years on and “lucky to be alive”, she felt Ireland was in denial about its drink habits.
Only once in the throes of her addiction did friends ask if she had a problem; the psychiatrists treating her never inquired if she drank too much; nor did gardaí, despite her threat to kill herself after her arrest. Yet drink was the root cause of all her woes, she believed; her depression lifted after she became sober. Had others been willing to intervene to stop her drinking, Elliott suggested, her life might have been different, but Irish people baulked at such behaviour.
Source: Mick Heaney, Irish Times, 03/03/2012
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