Gambling Addict turns life around

Oisin: At peace with his past, content with his present, hopeful for his future
By Colm Keys

Oisin McConville surveys the landscape around him and declares himself to be in the best place he has ever been before.

After the turmoil of a gambling addiction that led to him racking up debts in excess of £100,000, he has turned his life around and come out on the other side with remarkable clarity of thinking and high self-esteem.

On all fronts he feels his life is moving along with perfect harmony. Four weeks ago he got married to Darina Markey and moved into a new house in a small village just outside Crossmaglen.

Work takes him to Newry on weekdays, and sometimes Belfast, where he is a counsellor in one of Sister Consilio's nationwide addiction clinics. There he provides service and help to those in need from across the province, drawing on his own experiences.

It's a far cry from the day he rustled up the last £8 in his car he could find in his car, having lost £10,000, and then drove home with the diesel light on his dashboard flickering menacingly.

McConville can talk frankly about the life he once endured as an addict. He can see it from a different perspective now, the perspective of a counsellor. A two-year course in Athy earned him a diploma that has led to what he does now.

The legacy of his admission to a serious gambling addiction three years ago is the contact many still make with him, and members of his family, seeking advice and direction.

He has become a beacon of hope for relatives of those in a similar place to where he once was himself.