|
Actor hits out at Ireland’s growing drugs culture
BY Robert Brennan
 Following
a year full of senseless drug-related deaths in Ireland a London-based
Irish actor has spoken out against what has become the scourge of the
Celtic Tiger.
Cork actor Peter Dineen is one of Ireland’s leading performers and
is well known to audiences for his television appearances in the hit comedy
series Father Ted.
He has also worked extensively with the Royal National Theatre in Britain
and is being lined-up to star on the big screen alongside Liam Neeson
in the new year.
Dineen has been busy performing the lead role in Conor McPherson’s
supernatural tale St. Nicholas which has thrilled audiences in London,
New York and Edinburgh but he still keeps abreast with the goings on back
home.
Now settled in London, he makes frequent visits to Ireland and feels that
while the country has changed considerably for the better, it is also
facing a host of new problems.
He said: “Ireland has changed. No-one wants to go back to poverty
and emigration but we have to learn to handle our new wealth a little
more calmly.
“And in time I am sure that will happen but in the meantime we are
seeing the tragic loss of bright young lives like the beautiful Irish
model Katy French. It is a sad reflection of the abuses of the Celtic
Tiger.”
He believes that the Irish are now experiencing a sense of freedom they
never had before — but at a cost.
He said: “The Ireland of the ’50s had an inept De Valera Government,
mass economic emigration from a country that was giving their sons and
daughters nothing, religious and social oppression and the Celtic Tiger
came along as a very welcome beast indeed.
“However it appears to have brought sharp claws as well.
“The Irish are the most hedonistic people in Europe, the second
heaviest drinkers in the world; our lifestyle is basically to work hard,
play very hard.
“Perhaps Irish people have felt a sense of freedom never known before
and feel they are making up for those years of being hard up and told
what to do by the Church.
“Whatever, we deserve to have fun at last.
“But not the kind of fun that comes at a dreadful price, like the
death of Katy French and the deaths of the young lads in Waterford from
the same source — cocaine.”
The father-of-two fears that many of Ireland’s youth are wasting
their lives by indulging in drugs
He said: “As a professional actor, cocaine has always been around
and something the vast majority of sensible professionals avoid.
“But you cannot but see the effects the drug has on young people:
Erratic behaviour, damaged bodies and noses, operations to have tumours
removed from livers and kidneys — it is a senseless and stupid drug
for young people to indulge in.
“As a middle-aged person you have to have a think if I had their
youth I would not waste it on cocaine.
“Maybe coming from Ireland in the ’50s had its advantages
— no drugs in Ireland and if there was you could not afford them.” |
