Cork comedian explores serious topic of alcoholism through humour in new book

CORKMAN Tadhg Hickey’s new book, an oftentimes hilarious memoir detailing his alcoholism, is one he never intended to write.

“My publisher actually heard me on the radio and felt my angle on alcoholism wasn’t one people hear too often. It seems intuitive to me that alcoholism is a type of mental illness. It is a symptom of something else. But that’s not often how it’s presented.”

Time For Change

The ionate Hickey believes Irish people’s discourse around mental health and alcohol has failed to evolve. Although the 41-year-old Corkonian is a comedian by trade, his tone is serious throughout our chat, without the hilarity and entertainment of the memoir.

“Mental health is a bit of a buzzword. I’m not convinced lads are talking about mental health a lot. I’m around young people and I don’t think much has changed since my era. 

Yes, we have the buzz word but does that filter into real change?

There is a failure to really engage with alcoholism in our culture, he believes, a reluctance to take it seriously, to dig deeper.

“Stage depictions of the Irish drunk are still the same. We still have this idea of the artist and the drunk. Any addict I know is hobbled by drink, not aided by it. I’m not sure we’ve changed our understanding much. We have totally normalised hangovers for instance. People think it’s normal to say they are hungover at work. There is a whole hangover culture, you know, that ‘get in your jammies and watch Netflix’ stuff.”

He highlights our unhealthy attitude to drink, but also holds the state responsible for how we view alcoholics.

“Our government still takes a punitive approach to addiction. 

A punitive approach does nothing to shed any light on the responsibility of the family and broader Irish society to care for people. 

It is hard to beat us as a country when it comes to how we groom people for addiction. And yet, when people naturally act out, they are treated as morally defective. Nobody bothers looking at the reasons why they are acting out.”

The book, cleverly titled A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man (a nod to Hickey’s degree in English Literature in UCC perhaps) draws on what the Cork comedian believes to be his biggest talent.

“If I’m good at anything, it is my ability to explore serious topics through humour. I tell a lot of funny stories in the book but I also tell my honest story in a truthful way. My hope is that readers will grasp that you would have to be mentally unwell to risk everything for drink.”

It is at this point in our chat that the author starts to get personal, mirroring the candidness running throughout his book.

The Impact of Alcohol

“I know now that my addiction meant that I didn’t live my life in accordance with my values. One of my daughters is 19 now. I let her down badly and I had to make amends when I got sober.

“Being around other addicts has really helped me to understand the nature of the illness, that anxiety at the root of it. Maybe, if I were a teenager now, people might identify me as someone experiencing a panic attack and help me. Back when I was young, I just felt like a freak.”

The memoir provides a vivid, and often amusing, of growing up in 1990s Cork. The young, inebriated Hickey retraces his steps around Barrack Street, into the much-loved Sir Henrys nightclub. Beneath the fun and the frolics, is a darkness lurking. He is not afraid to share both a love for and a criticism of his city.

Tadhg says the culture around drinking in schools was destructive when he was growing up.

“Being drunk or hungover was a badge of honour then. But I knew, I had a creeping feeling that my relationship with alcohol was problematic. 

I stopped drinking altogether when I did my Leaving Cert because I was clever. I knew I could do well but I also knew that if I drank I could miss exams completely.

Culture

He believes that if it wasn’t for the consequences of his drinking, he might still be drinking now.

“I was very aware of letting people down. And I was very good at internalising that bad feeling, telling myself I was a piece of dirt.”

He also interrogates how people addicted to alcohol are treated in the community.

“If a heroin addict recovers, they are considered extraordinary. The media love it. Alcoholism is seen as just a little bit ordinary. The person is just a bit wild. 

"But I don’t know one single alcoholic who doesn’t have a trauma at the root of their addiction.”

He returns to his frustration with our government.

“As a country, we don’t want to look at the role this repressive, conservative state has played in creating mental illness. Fine Gael imposed such horrific austerity whilst indulging in corporate greasing. Adult children are still living with their parents into their thirties. The government is creating a generation who are frozen out.

“It’s like a pantomime. We must ask ourselves why, as a country, we are still managing to produce far more than our quota of alcoholics?”

Tadhg equates the failure of our government to British colonialism.

“We took the ball from the British and we just ran with it. We gained independence and made the country more oppressive.”

Equally concerned with the role of the family, the memoir details his own childhood which was impacted by his mother’s alcoholism. It is a heartbreaking of growing up around addiction and mental illness.

“The family is hugely important for an addict. An intervention shouldn’t be about people gathering to shock the addict, it should be about the family acknowledging that someone is in pain and wondering why. 

Everyone in the family will need to heal, not just the addict.

Therapy Of Writing

“I wouldn’t have written this book if my mother was still alive. I wouldn’t want to hurt her. I dedicated the book to her because I came to understand and love her far more through the act of writing it. I have far more comion for her now. From university counselling to various therapies, I have been flooded with opportunities to heal, but my mum got none of that.”

Sharing his joy at being sober, it is clear that Tadhg has a lot left to do in life.

“I am very happy to play even a small part in the movements I care about. My barstool dreams were always about following through on what I’m ionate about. I can do that now. I do a lot of work interrogating Southern apathy about the North for instance.”

He is also very excited about his tour entitled The Marxist Terrorist-ing Scumbag Tour, which will run alongside the book launch. The show is a stand-up comedy act, a new experience for him, with original songs by Eoin O’Sullivan. The tour kicks off in Cork Opera House on September 26.

Tickets available at https://www.corkoperahouse.ie/whats-on/tadhg-hickey-the-marxist-terrorist-ing-scumbag-tour/