A recovering alcoholic has credited a Newry addiction treatment centre with helping to turn his life around.
Cuan Mhuire has been operating in Newry for nearly 40 years, having opened its doors in the area in 1984.
Mick (whose name has been changed to protect his identity), said it had helped him to discover his true self over the course of a 12-week programme.
Read more: Newry dad-of-two opens up on pain of alcoholism and his mission to help others
Mick started drinking when he started to experience difficulties in his life and he said he was "using alcohol to run away from them".
He said his problem worsened when Covid kicked in, when as he says, "three months in the sun with nothing to do" led to his drinking problem escalating.
After the initial Covid lockdowns, he said he knew he had to end his marriage but he wasn't sure how to do that and when his place of work closed up, he said he was left in a place of very real fear.
"A lot of subconscious fear I think more than anything, just a fear that my whole life was crumbling down around me," he said.
"Rather than dealing with it, or sorting it out, suddenly drinking was an easier option and it did really take off."
A man that Mick knew well had been in Cuan Mhuire and came to talk to him, explaining how it had helped him.
Mick agreed to go, but by July of last year, he said he was "drinking at any chance I could get" and was hiding drink even when he went to work, hoping nobody would notice.
His friend persisted in trying to get him into Cuan Mhuire and explained that Mick's problems were more to do with what was going on in his head and his inability to deal with what was happening in his life, as opposed to specifically the alcohol.
Mick entered Cuan Mhuire in August of last year and finished his programme in November.
"It took a good six weeks out of the 12 before I was able to admit to myself that I had a problem," he said.
"A lot of the fear too was going into Cuan Mhuire and it was run by nuns and I'm not religious myself.
"While there is a lot of religious elements in Cuan Mhuire itself, that's not what the actual programme is about.
"There is spirituality and I realised that I was spiritual, the programme to me was amazing that way, we were taught about the difference between spirituality and religion, which was helpful for someone like me who isn't religious.
"I did always believe though that there was something out there, some higher power and through Cuan Mhuire, I have that back in my life."
Cuan Mhuire was set up in 1966 by Sister Consilio Fitzgerald in Athy, Co Kildare and has since expanded to five centres across the island of Ireland.
The name means 'Harbour of Mary' and it treats those suffering from alcohol, drug or gambling addictions.
Mick said his time at the Newry centre helped him to really examine his life and the way he lived it and led to an incredible breakthrough.
"I finally found myself - I didn't realise it, but all my life I didn't realise who I actually am, I had a different face and personality for different situations," he said.
"I never realised I was doing it, I changed myself so much all the time, but that was obviously other issues that had never been dealt with.
"They teach you about gratitude and unconditional love, those were things I always knew about, they would have been things I believed in.
"The idea that when you give, you receive tenfold, I would have been a person who believed in that but I lost my way for a period of time and going in there brought all that back to me."
Mick is now working in a job that he loves and said that although he is no longer married, he is making progress in his life, having recently reached the sale agreed stage on a new house.
"I learned how to cope with situations and I've put them into my daily life and my life has become so much simpler," he said.
"It's more to do with stopping thinking about the 'how', it's hard to explain it.
"There's amazing change there if you want it, but it's like anything in life, you have to want it."
For Sister ShIEla Cronin, Mick's story is one that she has seen replicated over the eight years she has been based in Newry, having arrived in 2015.
She is the manager at the discreet centre the charity operates from and said they are facilitators rather than people with a cure.
"We can't give anybody recovery, I wish we could but we can't, all we can do is help and support them to find that recovery in themselves," she said.
"We don't see the behaviour, our job is to see the goodness in that person, not the behaviour that might have brought them into dispute with their families, the law, anybody else.
"Our job is not to see that, our job is to see beyond that and to see their good ness and that has always been a gift.
"I have yet to journey with anybody that you wouldn't learn from yourself and think my God, it's such a privilege to actually have that journey with them."
Sadly, she has seen the rise of drug and gambling addictions in the people who come through the doors.
"Many people would say alcohol is their primary addiction but now they'll go and snort coke at the same time," she admitted.
"It's almost like 'if I can get a pint or a short, I can also get a line of coke', so it's definitely much more prevalent.
"Certainly, anyone under 40, even under 50, chances are they have taken coke or something on that line but they still maintain if they didn't drink, they wouldn't be taking the drugs, they wouldn't be in that field.
"It's sad as well, gambling has taken a massive increase.
"They tend to be really young, which is really sad - because it's even harder, their peers will all be doing these activities and they have to learn how to be different and how to live their life and have a good quality of life, without standing out and being strange or different."
She added that hearing from people who are thriving after going through the programme gives her great satisfaction and lets the centre know their work remains vital.,
"I always think the beautiful thing about in here is we don't have to judge anybody when they come in, we can take the person as the best of what they are at that moment in time and work with them," she said.
"Nobody chooses to have an addiction, nobody chooses to live their life in that awful misery and the awful pain of that, nobody chooses that, but unfortunately there are people who have that.
"I also recognise we deal with the families as well and the pain the families they go through.
"But the beautiful part about it is when you see that turned around, that sudden change in that person it's like 'I've got it, now I know what I need to do'.
"They have a great potential, they are good people, their behaviour may have been out of control but they are good people and they want a different life."
Gerry McElroy is the CEO of the charity and said the work done at their centres is life-changing for those who pass through.
"Almost all people that would arrive at Cuan Mhire would suffer with low self-worth, low self-esteem," he said.
"It's great to see the transformation in people over the 12 weeks and after, that they can get their lives back together without the need or reliance on their alcohol or drugs or gambling.
"I suppose there's a certain amount of stigma attached to it, but a lot of our Cuan Mhuire programme is about instilling in each person their goodness.
"A lot of our people who arrive here are in desperation, they would feel hopeless and we would talk about being rejected by family members or society in general.
"It's coming to see to instil in them that they are not their behaviour, they're not their addiction, that they have got positive qualities, good points and so on."
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