Wasted by Brian O'Connell

Author:Brian O'Connell [O’Connell, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9870717155637
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan

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On the third floor, where hourly therapy sessions and meetings take place, I met with Gerry, a 47-year-old former labourer from Mayo, who first came to the UK in 1978. He was 16½ years old at the time, and got work on the building sites.

Most of his family were in London, and him being the youngest, it was inevitable he would follow suit. Before he came to London he experimented with alcohol only a handful of times. But things quickly changed. He’s now sober six months, the longest period in his adult life without drinking.

‘The carryon was lunchtime, around one o’clock, everyone go to the pub and have a couple of pints, especially in hot weather. The safety regulation that time was more common sense, not the type of regulations you have today. So everyone, even the foreman, would go for a couple of pints at lunchtime, depending on whatever you get in over half an hour. Some people might have four or five pints, especially if it’s a day of ninety degrees. Some might only have two.

‘If you were travelling out of town, you’d go straight to the pub after work. And again, some people might only have three or four pints or some would stay until closing time.

‘For me, it progressed as the years went on until the point where drink takes hold. For the last few years, drink was virtually my god. I got so dependent on it.

‘You’d never be out of work, really. You had the contacts if you were here for years and would get to know nearly every Irish person. Sometimes you’d get sick of work and go on a binge, maybe for two weeks. The binge would last until the money would last. You end up starting from scratch again, a vicious circle.

‘I was living around the area. The pubs them days, in the nineteen-eighties up until the late nineteen-nineties, when the work was good and the money was there, were great. On a Monday night in a pub, the place would be packed after the weekend. In for the cure and for some people the cure would lead to the session again. If you had too much Monday, you had to go another night and then the weekend would be nearly on top of you and it would be the full blast again.

‘Some jobs would be only five days. So you would get up Saturday morning and have a shower or bath and you’d be bored. So the first thing you’d do is go to the pub and your mates would be in there. Even if me working mates weren’t there, there would be someone there you would know, because you’re around the area for so long, it’s like a big, big family. Even in Kilburn you’d know people, no matter which pub you’d go to.

‘I never really sat down and thought about the drink. You start to realise you have a problem when you start missing time over work. That’s the first sign, I think.

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