Amy Winehouse - Help others won’t get

AMY WINEHOUSE has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction publicly for so very long that her premature death cannot have been a great surprise.

That, however, does not make it any less tragic.

Despite a loving family, a music industry that would earn huge profits had she been able to use her spectacular talents, her own wealth and considerable intelligence, she could not confront, much less defeat, the demons that sustained her addictions.

Imagine then how very much more difficult it is for someone addicted to drugs or alcohol if, as is typical in the great majority of cases, those supports are absent.

As Fr Peter McVerry has warned so many times, almost to the point of resignation, public facilities for drug users who wish to end their addiction are completely inadequate in this country.

Winehouse sadly did not avail of the opportunities she was given to end her addictions, opportunities most Irish addicts will never get.