Davy Glennon’s crippling gambling addiction left him on the brink of taking his own life

Davy Glennon hit rock bottom so many times, that he had dirt under his fingernails.

But when he hit the depths, he kept digging. There was no bottom for Glennon to rest upon as he tried to get his chaotic life together until a fateful text from his brother. Davy Glennon is an addict. He is a chronic, compulsive gambler, and it almost cost him his life. The Galway hurler is in recovery, but there is no cure. The 25-year-old spent time in an addiction treatment centre last year, and has opened up in a harrowing and incredibly powerful interview in today's Irish Examiner. Glennon sat down with John Fogarty for arguably the best GAA piece you will read this year, and it is incredibly powerful stuff. The midfielder details how he lost €2,000 when Ruby Walsh and Annie Power fell at Cheltenham last year. The week before, he had lost €10,000. The piece is filled with the despair and agony that Glennon's gambling brought to his existence, and how it almost resulted in him taking his own life. He lost thousands of euro since he began betting at the age of 16, but the worst moment came as he left Croke Park last July. The hurler lasted just 27 minutes of last year's Leinster final before being taken off by Anthony Cunningham in the loss to Kilkenny. Gambling controlled his life, and Glennon saw no way out. He left Dublin and went home to an empty house as his parents, who had previously tried to get him help with Oisin McConville, stayed in Dublin at a concert. Glennon planned his death, as he saw no way out from his obvious problems, but a simple text, from his brother Ronan, saved his life.

“He was getting a lift home with one of my cousins and I didn’t realise he was coming home. I said to myself, ‘Will I do it now?’ I hopped into my car and I said ‘where am I going to go? What’s the easiest way out?’ I asked myself what I was leaving behind and the consequences of leaving a young brother, mother and father but you’re so selfish. I was gone selfish. I didn’t care about myself and when you can’t do that you’re not going to care about your friends or your family and the trail you’re leaving behind. “I didn’t know where I was driving to but I was saying to myself that it was all over and I had to do something. It was 11 o’clock at night when I got a text from him to leave the door open because he would be home. It triggered with me then — ‘what are you doing?’ So I turned on the road and went home. It took my head away from what I was doing. I couldn’t do it. It got me around but I was at breaking point all that week. How was I going to do it? What’s the easiest way? I didn’t want to hurt myself but just get out of town. I wasn’t trying to kill myself but I wanted to kill the life I was living.”

Glennon's former team-mate Niall Donohue took his own life in 2013, and the impact of that, coupled with Glennon's own life issues, forced the hurler to re-assess his life. A few days later he broke down to his mother, and he enrolled in a 12-week addiction programme at Cuan Mhuire in Galway. His routine was basic, but it appealed to him. Even the daily mass at 12.30pm and the rosary at 6pm. There was even a trip to the bog. After weeks of intensive counselling session, and visits from his Galway team-mates, he emerged with no job, but hope again. He is back hurling with Galway, and is hopeful of getting back to some normality. But it's not going to be easy. But Glennon, for the first time, really fancies his odds of success.

“Every day is a school day for me. I only take one day at a time. I’m never going to be cured of this illness. I’m a compulsive gambler for the rest of my life. Any gambler who says he’s not isn’t telling the truth. "I’ve lost years of hurling that I can never get back. I’m 25 years just gone and I’m just trying to make the most of it because literally gambling took over my life and it ate me. I lost money, my hurling, my talent, what I was good at and the only thing I hadn’t lost yet was my life. That was yet. That was what we’re always taught in Cuan Mhuire — yet. But the next thing down the line for me was my life.”

For support, you can Samaritans’ 24-hour helpline: 116 123. There are a number of Cuan Mhuire treatment centres around the country and you can contact their head office on (01) 878 8877