Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Friday 16 May 2025
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) is delighted to announce the next Voices of Recover CommunityConcert, which takes place on Saturday May 24th in St Stephen’s Church, Mount Street, Dublin 2 (aka the Pepper Canister) from 7.30pm-9pm.
The event, which coincides with the Recovery Reimagined 2025 Conference in Trinity College (May 23-25), will feature an array of talent including the amazing Balbriggan Gospel Choir, pianist Shane McVicker, singer Carly Coonagh, musical therapist Kate Daly, along with recovery advocate and poet Paddy Creedon with Belfast group Celtic Grace (harpist Eileen Beamish and flute player David Williiams).
There will also be a fireside chat about some of the issues faced by people and family members with lived experience of recovery.
Voices of Recovery founder and AAI board member Paddy Creedon said: “For people like me, complacency or taking our recovery for granted is our biggest challenge. Along with others in long-term recovery, Voices of Recovery has a vision to mobilise the ‘recovery community’ – individuals in recovery along with family, friends and recovery agencies etc – into community recovery advocate networks that will work together with other like-minded organisations – local, national and international – to make the world free of alcohol harm and a better place for all.
“This Community Concert aims to raise awareness of the issues faced by those in recovery from alcohol harm through the power of music, poetry and storytelling.”
Tickets for the event cost €10 or €5 with concession and can be booked here.
Voices of Recovery, an initiative from AAI, is driven by those in long-term recovery from alcohol dependency that seeks to:
- Harness the power of the lived experience of people in recovery from alcohol harm to drive progressive policy change.
- Remove the stigma around getting treatment for alcohol problems.
- Drive evidence-based change on key health, social, and economic issues such as better alcohol treatment services, curbs on alcohol marketing, and holding the alcohol industry to account for the harm its product causes.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “The views of those with lived experience of alcohol harm are very important when it comes to formulating public health strategies designed to reduce that harm.
“Around 15% of the population have an Alcohol Use Disorder, that’s nearly 600,000 people, 90,000 at a severe level. However, there are also thousands in recovery who have a huge amount to contribute to alcohol policy. Voice of Recovery brings the experiences of people in recovery to light and uses them collectively to help drive evidence-based policy change on issues like better alcohol treatment services, curbs on alcohol marketing and holding the alcohol industry to account for the harm its product causes.”
Membership of Voices of Recovery is open to all who self-declare that they have a minimum of two years continuous sobriety at the time of application and who support the work of AAI. The original ten signatories of the Voices of Recovery Charter are: Frances Black, Keith Cassidy, Mary Coughlan, Paddy Creedon, Stephen Dansiger, Kenneth Egan, Shane Mc Vicker, Danielle Hughes, Gary O’ Heaire and Val Ward.
ENDS
NOTES:
Tickets for the event cost €10 or €5 with concession and can be booked here.
Read more about Voices of Recovery here
Voices of Recovery Policy Document can be accessed here
The Voices of Recovery charter can be accessed here
AAI’s media language guide can be accessed here
