Book shines light on silent disease

“If a person had a stroke along side of me, I wouldn’t even get up to see was he alright.”

These are the words of recovering addict Con Hurley who has just released a new book chronicling his long-term battle with gambling and alcohol addiction.

Born in 1961, Con grew up in the northside of Cork city, leaving school at ten years old to work as a paper boy.

“I remember being on the streets of Cork city with a bag over me to protect me from the rain. I used to cut out the holes for the sleeves,” Con told the Cork Independent.

“There was 21 siblings in my family. Two sets of twins passed away, and other children passed away because of tuberculosis. The only one I remember was Michael, and he was the seventh son,” he said.

In 1978 Con followed in the footsteps of his father and four of his brothers by joining the army, and it was during his time with the Irish defence forces that his addictions began to take hold.

“In the army, the drink is cheap and the wage is good and I learned how to play Pontoon, Nines, Poker, Don, and if you weren’t joined in with the boys, then you weren’t one of the boys,” Con explained.

Con then began to visit a number of “haunts” around the city where he developed a strong addiction to gambling machines and began to accumulate massive debt.

“I used to time it in the morning, I’d go in for an hour or two. But then that became 12 and 13 hours a day. I used to call the machines by names like ‘Honey’ and ‘Daisy’ and I used hug them and kiss them. It was unbelievable.”

He stayed in the army until 1997 when, against all advice, he decided to leave just one and a half years short of his pension.

“I was so much in debt at the time, that when I saw the voluntary early retirement coming up, nothing could change my mind. All I could see was pound signs. I got a five figure sum coming out of the army and I thought it would solve all my problems,” he said.

The gambling continued after Con’s retirement until it came to boiling point and he was forced to leave the family home.

Con said: “My kids were left go hungry. They were out in the rain. They were never collected from school like I promised. I was lying all the time, hiding, dodging, weaving, and conning to find any way to have the bet.

“My wife couldn’t take any more and she asked me to leave and I ended up in a friend’s place in St Luke’s. I remember the first night, the thing that hit me most was the loneliness when I closed the door. That was the moment I reached my rock bottom.”

After that, Con went into treatment in Arbour House in the city and began attending meetings five days a week. He has been clean of alcohol and gambling since 2002 and in 2017 graduated from University Limerick with a diploma in drugs and alcohol addiction studies.

Con Hurley’s book, ‘Shadows on my Shoulder’ is available to buy for €12 with €2 of every sale going to Cork Penny Dinners.