McConville detailed his battle with gambling addiction and spoke to students about its dangers
This afternoon at the University of Limerick, All Ireland-winning footballer Oisin McConville gave students a talk about the dangers of gambling and his journey with addiction.
Organised by the student union and held in their UL Student Life building, the free event allowed students to learn about the dangers of gambling and hear how a highly respected figure in the GAA world overcame his struggles.
A two time All Star with Armagh, McConville retired from football in 2013 aged 37 after a personal battle with gambling addiction during his career. He is now a gambling awareness advocate, balancing commitments with managing Wicklow’s senior footballers and regular punditry appearances.
McConville began the talk by explaining that his gambling addiction began after a tough start to life in secondary school:
“At 11 years of age I began to search for something outside of school and outside of sport in order to fulfil me and at 14 I walked into a bookmakers and had 50p each way on a horse from the Grand National. As soon as I got in there and walked out later that evening and went home, the only thing on my mind that I could hear was the commentary, the buzz and the noise of the bookies. That day I fell in love with the bookmakers and gambling.”
From there, it was downhill fast with the addiction for McConville:
“By the time I was 18, I was gambling 24 hours a day with every penny I had. I was a compulsive gambler at 18 years of age, but I was also a compulsive liar. Those two things went hand in hand for me.”
Another source of struggle for McConville around this time was his father being given just six months to live:
“I saw how my fathers illness was affecting my family so I did my very best to avoid it and to pretend that it wasn’t happening. Another reason why I didn’t go and see him was because I was too busy feeding my addiction. And to feed my addiction, it was 24/7, not that I was gambling during that whole time, but I had to find ways of finding out who I can scam in order to get the money.”
“We played Meath in an All Ireland semi-final in 1999 in front of 82,000 people in Croke Park that day. I was taken to hospital after the game because I was told my father was on his last legs and on the way up I made a promise to myself that I was never going to gamble again and ask for help, I was going to tell my father that I loved him and I was going to ask for help, in the end I got to the hospital and didn’t do anything of those things.”
The turning point for McConville was when he finally opened up to family and friends:
“I got home one night and broke down for the first time in 16 years in front of my family and told them about my addiction and a week later I was in a treatment centre in Galway and started to learn about addiction, where a nun was the first person to tell me I was addicted to gambling at 29 years of age”.
McConville entered a 13-week residential programme at Cuan Mhuire, Galway. He is now passionate about supporting people and guiding them towards meaningful help, aiding countless individuals and families struggling to cope with gambling addiction and is now on a mission to reduce the stigma around problem gambling.
UL Student Support services were present for the talk and the Substance Use & Gambling Support Service (SUGS) and the Student Financial Advisor were also available to meet students after the talk.
If you or someone you know is affected by gambling addiction, please reach out to the Substance Use & Gambling Support Service (SUGS) in UL or online at Gamblingcare.ie.