Carbery Rangers first West Cork club to hold gambling addiction event

This time last year, Carbery Rangers GAA decided to join the Irish Life GAA Healthy Club Programme.

It proved to be a very good decision. The programme is the GAA’s flagship programme for health and well-being.

With the backing of the Club Executive, Carbery Rangers set up a Healthy Club Committee with Paul Hodnett as the Healthy Club Officer.

The committee has people with different areas of expertise in both the club and community, people that you might not ordinarily see at a GAA match on a Sunday morning.

In the first few months, the West Cork club held MAOTG (Movember Ahead of the Game) for their U16 footballers, parents and coaches ahead of a mental health workshop and cardiac screening for the underage players and community through the Dylan Quirke Foundation. In total, 145 people were screened.

Other initiatives included having the Marie Keating Foundation Mobile Unit come to the Village in September and with Rosscarbery Pharmacy backing everything Carbery Rangers do, it was a great success.

Recently at the Celtic Ross Hotel, Carbery Rangers had the backing of the Club Executive on hosting a Gambling Awareness event.

Every club member, local businesses and people of the Rosscarbery community were invited to the presentation. It was watched by a large crowd.

Tony O’Reilly held the presentation. He told his own story and he educated the audience and made them more aware of the potential negative impact of gambling and gaming addiction now that we live in a technological world where online is the new normal.

Tony is the co-author of ‘Tony10’, the bestselling and award-winning book that tells the story of Tony’s gambling addiction and subsequent recovery. Tony has a unique perspective and insight into the issue of problem gambling and its impact on individuals, families and communities.

He uses his lived experience and his professional training to advocate for more awareness, education and support.

Tony is a fully accredited member of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) and the Addiction Counsellors of Ireland (ACI).

Carbery Rangers are the first GAA club in West Cork to host a gambling addiction presentation with Tony.

Carbery Rangers’ Healthy Club Committee members are Paul Hodnett, Dr Eoin O'Shea, Niall Flavin, Alice Power, Eimear Murphy, Ciara O’Donovan, Ashlie O'Sullivan, Méabh Hourihane, Seán Linehan, Seán Hayes, Sam Linehan, Liam O'Shea, Dan Barry, Gordon Duffy and Oonagh Hodnett.