Irish Examiner View: Breaking the silence on alcohol abuse

Reality TV star and influencer Vicky Pattison, will speak at the House of Commons on the isolation induced by growing up with an alcoholic. It’s a matter we need to talk about more openly, and more frequently, in Ireland. Picture: PA

While it may have slipped some people’s attention that this is International Children of Alcoholics Week, the painful and consistently depressing facts behind the requirement for such an anniversary should not escape us.

New data released in the UK to mark the 2023 campaign discloses that half of children whose parents are alcoholics keep it a secret, and do not discuss their problems outside of their family. A quarter of young people talk to no one at all, not even their closest relatives, about the challenges they face at home.

The research is carried out by the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (Nacoa), whose patron is the TV personality Calum Best, son of the legendary Northern Ireland and Manchester United footballer George.

According to Nacoa, children of alcoholics are six times as likely to witness domestic violence, three times as likely to contemplate suicide, twice as likely to experience difficulties at school and to be in trouble with the police, and three times as likely to develop their own forms of addiction, an outcome foreshadowed in an authoritative Irish survey which included the quote: “If they’re getting loaded, why can’t I?”

That research, which was carried out by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and is more than a decade old, polled the attitudes of 9,746 youngsters aged 12 to 18 through schools and educational establishments. 

However, what should be deeply worrying is that many of the factors identified in 2009 remain hugely prevalent and relevant today and, according to the latest analysis of helpline data from Nacoa, are accelerating and deepening.

Alcoholism has become a worldwide epidemic and there is a growing mountain of evidence to suggest it was turbo-charged by lockdown, which included a prolonged period of school closures. The extent to which young people suffered through this strategy has not yet been weighted due to the sluggardly nature of Ireland’s public analysis of decisions taken during Covid-19, but we would be foolish to expect our outcomes to be more favourable than those which are being reported elsewhere.

We are among the world’s most prolific consumers, according to the World Health Organization, and 70% of Irish men and 34% of women over the age of 15 are judged to have a “hazardous” relationship with alcohol, with 150,000 of us classified as “dependent” drinkers.

The theme of the Nacoa campaign — giving voice to those children at risk — has been central to Alcohol Ireland’s advocacy initiative, Silent Voices, and its strategic plan for more than a year. 

The charity calculates that 600,000 people, 200,000 of them youngsters, are impacted by problematic usage. It aims to end the taboo of talking openly about the issue and ensure that supports are in place. One of its founders and patrons is Fergal Keane, BBC’s Africa editor, who spoke movingly at its launch about growing up with a “sense of shame” and “wanting to hide”. Alcohol misuse causes “chaos” and “grief, for generations”, he said.

This week, reality TV star and influencer Vicky Pattison, who made a Channel 4 documentary called Alcohol, Dad, and Me, will speak at the House of Commons on the isolation induced by growing up with an alcoholic. It’s a matter we need to talk about more openly, and more frequently, in Ireland.