John Higgins spoke to Ray D’Arcy on Tuesday about his son David’s death by suicide in 2011.
John Higgins, who lost his son David to suicide in 2011, has spoken to Ray D’Arcy on RTÉ Radio about the dangers of cheap alcohol that is causing heartache for families all across the country.
Speaking about how he would worry every time his son David would go out drinking, John said: “When he’d go out at night, I’d get a knot in my stomach. I’d sit in the armchair and I’d have the blind on the window up maybe eight or nine inches and I’d watch the gate…
“I’d sit there and watch the gate to see his feet coming in the gate, and once they did I was happy.”
John described his last conversation with his son,
“I got this gut feeling, and I said things are not right. I got up and I rang him, and he answered the phone and he was sobbing. He was crying, I knew he was in bother then, I tried to get him to tell me where he was but he just couldn’t tell me.”
David had died by suicide, with John’s friend Tommy also losing his life in the process of searching for David.
“Tommy made a bad decision, he went off on his own at night, and he shouldn’t have. Tommy was the best in the world, a lovely fella,” John revealed.
John feels very strongly about the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill which will address excessive consumption by establishing robust regulation on price, labeling, marketing and availability of alcohol products. He spoke about the amount of alcohol people can buy for €15, he believes that this is a huge part of the problem.
“If something is dear, people will buy less of it, it’s ridiculous. They’re all sold as loss leaders. It’s just to get footfall in and they really aren’t loss leaders because a loss leader brings people in to the store to buy other items, they’re not.”
John told D’Arcy that parents should remember the day their children were born, they should never have to remember the day they die.
He believes that if David never drank, he’d still be alive. With minimum unit pricing coming in with the Public Health Alcohol Bill, John would also like to see structural separation brought in.
“I know it’s about alcohol, but it’s about public health first and foremost… all parties should be united on this bill, I cannot see why they’re not.
“It’s time people started to kick back… do the people that sell the alcohol not have to have some of the responsibility? Can you just sell it and take the profit and let them out the door and not worry about them?”
Listen to the full clip here:
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