Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is celebrating 75 years in Ireland this month, with calls to the service increasing since the pandemic began.
Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland processed a total of 5,251 calls last year, according to the organisation’s annual report for 2020.
This represents an increase of over one third on 2019. The rise in calls was attributed to Covid-19, with members and the public seeking help and advice on how to attend online meetings.
The recovery support group started in Ireland in the 1950s when an emigrant returned home and set up an AA group, after he had been helped by one in the USA.
Conor F from the west of Ireland joined AA in Philadelphia in 1943. During the same year, an Irish priest living in Sydney named Fr Tom Dunlea was impressed by the success of the AA fellowship in Australia.
In 1946, while back in Ireland, Fr Dunlea spoke to the Dublin Evening Mail newspaper about the success of the Sydney AA group.
This interview was the Irish public’s first introduction to AA. One of the people who read the article was Conor F, who was on a visit home to Ireland with his wife.
Conor then approached the Evening Mail, who wrote an article about him. He outlined what AA had done in the USA and what it hoped to do in Ireland.
He gave a brief account of his own drinking and said he would try to start a group in Dublin. A box number was printed at the end of the article, asking those who were interested to reply.
Conor then went on to meet Dr Norman Moore, who was the head of St Patrick’s Hospital.
Dr Moore introduced Conor to Richard F, a fellow alcoholic.
The pair bonded over their mutual struggle and worked together to get the first meeting off the ground.
They held a meeting in the home of a man named Leo, who had answered the AA advertisement on behalf of his brother.
Four or five people attended that first meeting in Dublin on 25th November 1956.
It was decided that the next meeting would be public, and it was held in the Country Tea Shop in St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.
There are now more than 600 registered AA groups in Ireland.
Their 75th anniversary will be celebrated during a virtual event for alcoholics, which will include speakers from all four provinces who will share their experience of strength and hope.
The event will take place on Sunday November 14th via Zoom at 7pm. For more information, visit alcoholicsanonymous.ie