Cork-based addiction recovery group saving lives during pandemic

The group, set up by Tommy Long, brother of the host of the Two Norries podcast, is continuing to operate

Tommy Long at Penny Dinners in Cork City Picture: Eddie O'Hare

An addiction recovery group, set up voluntarily by the brother of a Two Norries podcast host, has saved lives during the pandemic and helped people in Cork turn their lives around. 

Addiction squeezed a tighter grip on many last year as services closed and people battled their demons alone, but Tommy Long kept his recovery group through Cork’s Penny Dinners open, encouraging anyone who was struggling to contact them.

The meetings have saved people who were on the brink of suicide, giving them a lifeline at their lowest point, he said.

“Covid has been really tough for people in addiction," he said. 

Not many services have been open and if you’re just hanging around all day with nothing to do, it’s only a matter of time before you get bored or you can’t handle your thoughts anymore.

“A lot of people have felt very isolated and lost.

“You get a lot of people saying ‘only for this meeting I don’t know where I’d be.’ They say it’s been life-changing. Some people even got their families back this Christmas. When you get clean and your family wants to have you around again for Christmas that’s powerful.

“People who have wanted to take their own lives, they came to our meeting and are clean and flying it today.

“Death is a big thing when you’re coming to the end of your using. I was too afraid to kill myself but I didn’t want to wake up."

Mr Long said that he became 'addicted to anything he touched' early in life.

“I was an alcoholic before I touched any drug. When I was young I’d drink seven nights a week, then it was ecstasy for years, then tablets, then drink again, and then heroin came into my life. That was the end of it all. It completely robbed my soul. It took over my entire life, my thinking."

Tommy Long got clean two-and-a-half years ago, aged 34. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Tommy got clean two-and-a-half years ago, aged 34. Months later, he saw people who were homeless and in addiction struggle through a particularly cold winter and asked Caitriona Twomey in Cork’s Penny Dinners if he could set up an addiction recovery group.

People helped me when I wanted to get clean and I wanted to give something back. I could not have done it my own.

“There 100% needs to be more government support for people who are in addiction and who are homeless."

The group, which meets every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday  at 7pm, operated throughout the pandemic, although occasionally migrating to Zoom.

They also established a helpline so that anyone in the group can contact someone directly, day or night, if they’re feeling low or at risk of a relapse.

“When you’re out there in addiction, you think you’re the only one with these problems, but then you come to a meeting and you hear someone else telling your story.

It’s good to be face-to-face with other people in addiction. When you’re around people you can feel their pain more, relate to them more.

He said that he and his brother, Two Norries podcast host Timmy Long, have turned their lives around and try to help others who want to do the same.

“We’re all about helping others now because we’ve been there and we know how hard it is," he said.