peter
“In the 80’s all the drugs came into Dublin destroying whole communities and countless families. My parents had eleven siblings from which they lost five to addiction. They were simple people who had no idea about drugs. My younger sister was only 14 when she tried heroin for the first time and my older sister, a beautiful, beautiful girl, also got addicted. It was horrible to see her sense of humour and personality get eaten up by depression. She was only 36 when she died of an overdose. I never injected it. I tried to smoke it once but I didn’t like it, and that’s probably the only reason that I’m not in prison or dead. One of my sons is an addict as well. He is in prison at the moment. When he was coming off heroin he was taking tablets and drank. He blacked out so didn’t even know what he was doing and grabbed a pram with a baby in it on O’Connell Street. He was so out of his head he thought it was his own child. Only walked away a few meters when he realised what he had done, but when he turned back the security was already on him. He got three years in prison for it. My only hope is for my other son, he is a great student now living in America. He is brilliant and doing well out there. He is my only hope left.”