A moment that changed me: a stranger told me of his alcohol problem – and I realised I had one too

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When he described his recent sobriety, my wall of denial crumbled. The next day I asked him to take me to a 12-step meeting

hen I left Ireland in 1993, I followed a route already well-worn by other Irish immigrants, carrying two suitcases, $500 and a one-way ticket toCity. I had been raised, one of nine children, on a housing estate just outside Dublin. The daily backdrop was one of rising unemployment and the escalating violence in Northern Ireland. I was 20 years old. I had a job in a clothes shop in town. On the bus to work, I jotted down poems and daydreamed about a different life.

Catholic conservatism had shaped my psyche, so when I found myself in the desert of addiction, familiar feelings of guilt and shame rose in me. Maybe going to mass would help? I showed up late with a charity shop trenchcoat thrown over my pyjamas. Afterwards, they served tea and coffee. One Sunday, a tall, handsome man introduced himself. He was third generation with an Irish name and a square American face. I agreed to join him for a walk around the neighbourhood.

 

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Literally goes to Mass, God puts an Angel in her life, and all she can do is blame her problems on ambiguous historic victimhood? Typical woman! No accountability EVER since Eve. Bet she never went back to Mass. Jesus weeps as he wipes her spit from his face.

'I realised historical traumas such as British colonialism, the Great Famine, mass emigration and the abuses of Irish church and state had ramifications in the present.' Nothing to do with a lifestyle of single, childless, hedonistic atheism though.

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