Paul (whose name has been changed to maintain anonymity) has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 18 years. The Waterford News & Star sat down with Paul to talk about what AA looks like in 2026.
As with most people suffering from addiction, the root of the problem began in Paul’s childhood. He comes from a big family where alcoholism was prevalent.
“I was never really relaxed in myself.”
He started drinking at 12 or 13. When he was young, “nothing felt right, and everything felt a bit off. When I picked up the drink, even at that young age, it gave me a bit of confidence.”
He didn’t start drinking heavily until his late teens.
“My life was pretty chaotic and unmanageable at 17, 18, around drinking.”
He continued, “I liked what drink did for me. It gave me confidence.”
He “scraped through” college, “just about”.
Even then, he knew his drinking habits in college differed from those of his peers. He would continue drinking for “two or three days” after the night had ended.
“Ireland was a crazy place when I came out of college. There was lots of good stuff happening, lots of work.”
Paul went on to have a successful career in the business sector, despite his drinking problem.
But the financial crash of 2008 was a devastating blow for Paul, “I lost everything.”
But, “It was the best thing that happened. When you’re left with no material things, you’re just left with yourself. It made me look at my drinking.”
Paul considers himself “one of the lucky ones”; his father paid for him to go to treatment. He spent 28 days in treatment. When he left, he was advised to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
“If you think about it, if you have lived a life where you’ve had no purpose, no kindness shown to you, and you weren’t trusted with anything. Well, making the tea for the group is lovely. Bit by bit, you build up people’s self-esteem.” Photo: iStock
Before going to his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Paul thought it was just for “down and outs around town”. He compared his drinking to what he thought an alcoholic looked like. He thought because he was young and didn’t drink every single day of the week, he wasn’t an addict. He had no idea who attended the meetings.
He said, “I walked into a room of people who went through the exact same struggle that I went through. Some were two months sober – which to me was amazing, as someone who drank every day.”
“The minute you walk in, people know where you’ve come from, they know the hell. No one else can understand that.
“It was such a warm welcome. People offered me tea and coffee, they introduced themselves.”
In Waterford alone, there are 30 meetings per week. Each meeting follows a similar format. The chair of the meeting will share their story for about 15 minutes, and then everyone else each talks for a few minutes – though there’s no pressure to talk if you don’t want to, some just come to listen.
Looking around the room at his first meeting, Paul couldn’t believe that people who had been in the same position as him were now holding down jobs and had loving, stable relationships.
“The main thing from the meetings was the fellowship.”
Small things, like having someone to go for a coffee with before or after the meetings.
“I built my whole friendship group in Waterford from the meetings. My life since starting the meetings has been a good life.”
The structure and aims of Alcoholics Anonymous might be the closest thing we have to a utopia in the world. It is completely free, there are no hierarchies, and it just, well, works. They don’t have a marketing campaign or a ‘new and exciting’ innovation to keep people coming to meetings, anyone who’s there is there because they genuinely want to be.
The fellowship was founded in 1935 and since then has spread to every corner of the world – Paul himself goes to a meeting whenever he’s travelling – yet the meetings themselves are the same as they always have been.
Paul believes the fellowship’s success lies in its simplicity. AA is not trying to open treatment centres or start a sober revolution.
“We have no other purpose than to help suffering alcoholics. We’re not allowed to bring politics or anything like that into the room.”
Each group is autonomous, but they all organise around the same constitution.
“There’s no egos.”
Giving members responsibility is an important step in their recovery.
Paul said, “If you think about it, if you have lived a life where you’ve had no purpose, no kindness shown to you, and you weren’t trusted with anything. Well, making the tea for the group is lovely. Bit by bit, you build up people’s self-esteem.”
There are loads of other things you can do, “but this works”.
If you know someone in your life who could benefit from this but don’t know how to bring it up, if you call the AA head office in Waterford, two members of the fellowship will actually call over to the person’s house and tell them their story.
“At the end of the day, it’s up to the person but we can bring it to their door.”
Paul said that people shouldn’t be nervous about going to a meeting.
“If you walk in the door, people will know you’re a newcomer and they’ll reach out to you. You’ve people in their sixties coming in and getting sober and getting their grandkids back in their lives and living a really happy, fulfilling life.
“You have young people coming in whose life was chaotic and they weren’t dependable – then they get a job, they go back to college, they get a degree.
“You see people coming in who lived on the streets and now they’ve built a house and are married with kids.
“If someone comes in to a meeting and they’re homeless… Someone being able to say, ‘I was homeless and look where I am now’. Or if there’s a person who’s older, they can see that there are other older people there too.
“Life’s still going to happen to these people but they just have the tools to deal with it now.
“Every issue that you can think of that you have in your life, there’s someone in that meeting who’s gone through it.”
If you would like more information on the AA phone their helpline 01 8420700 or its sister organisation Al-Anon Family Groups (for families and friends of alcoholics) contact 01 8732699. Also, check out
alcoholicsanonymous.ie to find a meeting near you.