Price to pay for gambling is not simply financial debt

Lifestyle –  Dearbhla Geraghty hears how addiction to gambling ruined the lives of GAA stars Davy Glennon and Oisín McConville

Galway hurler, Davy Glennon, watched his team mates compete in the 2015 All-Ireland final without him – he was in treatment for a gambling addiction that had completely taken over his life.

The following year, however, he was back training with the team he had always dreamed of playing for, and had set up a charity to help others who also faced similar demons.

From his first bet at the age of 16, to the beginning of his recovery nearly two years ago, he had become a different person.

“I was being a menace, a compulsive liar, I had no respect for myself, and my conscience was gone,” the 26 year-old says.

“I was living two lives – one that everyone wanted to see, and my own life, where there were dark places – do I beg, borrow or steal (to get the money). It wasn’t me, as a young person, to be a compulsive liar, a compulsive gambler.

“I was ruining my talent, my family, and all those affected by my gambling. There were dark days, days when I just wanted to get out. I didn’t want to kill myself, but to kill that life I was living. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, who could I tell?”

He says that he is not out of the woods yet, that he will have debts until the days he dies, and he knows that it will take years before he builds back up the trust others had in him.

“I hurled in the Leinster final for my county, where every young star wants to be, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind,” he recalls.

“I was isolated from friends and living between the white lines – once in off the field, I was asking myself where do I get the money. It was a rat race . . . the hurling had painted over all the cracks, and gambling had taken that away from me.”

Despite much intervention, he could not stop the addiction until he had truly accepted his “massive problem.”

His father used to warn that he would end up in the same treatment centre (Cuan Mhuire in Coolarne) as All-Ireland winning Armagh footballer, Oisín McConville – and he did, but only when he actually wanted to be there.

Davy’s recovery began less than two years ago, in July 2015, when he finally confessed everything to his mother. A three-month stint in treatment centre followed, which meant that he missed out on a shot at the All-Ireland final that year.

“There is no point doing it unless you are honest to yourself. It was hard, and when I walked in I was wondering what was I doing there.”

He was ready to acknowledge, however, that he needed to be isolated, and to do the normal things such as going to bed on time – not coming home late, just to avoid probing questions from his family.

He stuck-out the treatment, emerging a much stronger person, and even set up a charity walk, Croker to Cuan Mhuire, to give something back to the community.

“The day the walkers walked into Mullagh, I was preparing for the quarter final – the previous year I had been in treatment. I had to watch Galway getting to the quarter final, and winning it, then the semi final, and the All-Ireland final, parading around in front of 84,000 people – I would have been there, but the gambling had taken all that away from me.”

The talented hurler was one of four speakers at an event organised by TD Anne Rabbitte in Abbeyknockmoy, about an issue that is affecting a growing number of people across the sexes and ages.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.