“I love being able to give back to my community and doing something positive”

“I love being able to give back to my community and doing something positive”

By Mary Dennehy

GROWING up Dara O’ Connor was always into sports however, like many young people alcohol and, or, drugs led him away from the playing field in his early twenties.

Through addiction, Dara lost not only his interest in sport but his confidence and self-esteem.

Darragh OConnor 26 January 2017

However, an innovative, Tallaght-based rehabilitation programme that combines education with high performance sport has put the 34-year-old back in the game – with Dara now a volunteer coach with two local clubs.

Dara told The Echo: “I lost sports and my confidence through alcohol and drugs.

“It kind of started when I was in my early twenties and training began to get in the way of my nights out on Friday and Saturday.

“My weekends basically started impacting on my training and my ability to do sports and it just escalated from there.

“I moved to Australia when I was 25 and it was there that I realised how bad things had gotten with drink and drugs.”

After returning to Ireland, Dara, who lives in Ballycullen, sought help and started on a recovery programme with the Tallaght Rehabilitation Project (TRP) in Kiltalown House, Jobstown.

It was here that Dara learned about the project’s new programme Box Smart which, run by TRP and Tallaght Wide Aftercare Services, strives to re-integrate participants back into society through QQI Level 1 minor award in Health Related Fitness, which includes a healthy food and nutrition module, gym work and boxing.

Since its conception in 2013, the Box Smart Programme has supported 50 men andwomen with real progression routes within their recovery from addiction, with past participants moving onto full and part-time employment, further education in IT Tallaght, coaching, volunteering opportunities and mentoring. 

As the third round of Box Smart was launched this month by Dublin GAA star Philly McMahon, Dara, who took part in last year’s programme, told The Echo: “I left school when I was 15 so when the programme was recommended to me, I was really worried about the written part.

“I was really looking forward to the physical part but it was very hard going back to education.

“However, it got easier and I got lots of support with the written part and ended up graduating with a distinction.”

He added: “The programme built my confidence back and I remembered what I wanted to do, and loved to do – sports.

“I’m in my second year of coaching kids with Eanna Basketball and Ballyboden Wanderers GAA Club, and I play a lot of Gaelic football myself.

“I love being able to give back to my community and the kids and doing something positive.

“Box Smart made all of this possible, the programme gave me back everything I lost and more.

Pat Daly, Tallaght Rehabilitation Project manager, told The Echo how sport and wellbeing plays a huge part in recovery.

“Learning about health and fitness and feeling well helps to keep people on the straight and narrow”, Mr Daly said.

“The programme also builds self-confidence, self-esteem and helps to re-integrate participants in their community.

“It also has a larger impact on the family and the wider community, with many of the programme’s participants now giving back to their areas.”

He added: “For the small funding that the programme receives, the positive outcomes are pure gold – and if we got more funding, we could take more than 15 people on each programme.”

The referral-based programme is supported by the Tallaght Drugs and Alcohol Drugs Task Force and South Dublin County Sports Partnership, with the Sacred Heart Boxing Club in Killinarden also helping to make Box Smart a winning project.

For more visit www.tallaghtrehabproject.ie or call 4597705.

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