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Sobering tale of life consumed by alcohol
Lifestyle – Judy Murphy talks to Galwayman Michael Corcoran who has charted his hard-drinking life in a new book
I worked hard and I drank hard,” says Michael Corcoran. “I didn’t know I was an alcoholic – I thought it was what people did, they went for a drink. I never enjoyed drinking but I liked the social aspect of it.”
At the age of 69, Michael just self-published his first book, Be My Friend, an account of his life and his addiction to alcohol, which helped cost him his marriage. It will be launched in McHugh’s Bar and Restaurant, Claregalway, this Saturday, February 6, from 2-6pm, with all proceeds going to Galway Hospice.
Michael isn’t wrong when he says he was a hard worker and a hard drinker. The genial 69-year-old was 14 when began his working life in Corbett’s in the city’s Wellpark tending to plasterers. He ended up developing property, most recently a string of nursing homes, before retiring aged 60.
From the age of 14, he consumed alcohol, often heavily, even though he didn’t like the taste of it. Mostly Guinness, he says. He preferred it to whiskey, which he loathed from the first time he tasted it at 14 when a colleague brought some to work.
“I drank Guinness and I drank a lot of it. I couldn’t get enough of it,” he says, adding that he didn’t really like Guinness much either.
Michael has been sober for 22 years, following a bad period in the mid 1990s, during which he “hit rock bottom”.
“Life wasn’t good, even though the family wanted for nothing,” he says of his drinking days.
Michael, who was one of 11 children, from Carrowbrowne on the Headford Road just outside the city, was reared to be a worker.
Aged seven, he began helping out on a neighbour’s farm in return for a few bob; feeding calves, cleaning out cowsheds and going to the bog. He also worked at home on his parents’ land, and says while money wasn’t plentiful “we had enough to eat”.
But with 11 children on a small farm, there were no luxuries.
“Santa Claus never came to our house,” recalls Michael. “I could never understand how he came to the fellow next door and passed us.”
The ‘fellow next door’ was an only child, while Michael had 10 siblings, which might have explained Santa’s absence.
After a year in St Mary’s Secondary School in the city, during which his family briefly thought he might become a priest, Michael decided formal education wasn’t for him and went working in Corbett’s. When his time there came to an end, he trained as a blocklayer.
He was young, single, had money and his own transport, so even though this was the 1960s and times were tough, he was reasonably well off.
Michael contributed money to his mother and the rest of his wages went on a motor bike and drink. Later he upgraded to a car, but drink was always present.
He travelled the country for work, spending periods in Limerick, Cork and Kerry, before ending up in Waterford, working on an extension at the Waterford Glass plant. During that time, he quit alcohol for three months, in sympathy with a colleague who had suffered from Delirium Tremens because of drink. While this abstinence did them “a world of good”, for Michael it was only temporary.
Full of fun and very sociable, he was a big hit with the opposite sex and began dating Miriam, a woman from the area. Michael was 23, and by the sounds of it, still had a lot of wild oats to sow. He and Miriam, a nurse, had no plans to marry, but “we had to”, he says. In 1971, that’s what couples did when the woman became pregnant. Ironically, Miriam miscarried just days before their wedding.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
