Thank you and farewell to the good doctor who saved me

I WAS sad to hear of the death of Professor Ivor Browne. While my dealings with him were professional, I looked on him as more of a friend than a psychiatrist.

I was in crisis when I first met him in 1993. I was on lithium which psychiatrists had prescribed but was in fact doing very little if anything for my severe bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts. Professor Browne proposed to take me off the lithium and undergo a regression therapy called holotropic breathwork which he had been using with clients in a former church in St Brendan’s Hospital in Grangegorman.

I benefited from this at the time and in recent years I went back to this form of therapy. I had setbacks along the way, which tended to trigger off my suicidal thoughts. After he retired from St Brendan’s Hospital in 1995 and I was referred to other therapists, I went back to him I think four times in the next 20 years, and three of these times I was in crisis.

I have often wondered what would have happened to me if I had never met him. Would I have come off medication on my own without the support of a professional? Would I have come across holotropic breathwork some other way? Who would I have turned to at times of crisis along the way?

Of course I’ll never know the answers but there is no doubt in my mind that if I had remained within the conventional psychiatric system of medication, I would not have gotten through. For this I owe Professor Browne an enormous amount of gratitude. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam uasal. TOMMY RODDY, Ballybane, Co. Galway.

Insurance folly

MANY car insurers are refusing to insure older cars despite the fact that they are roadworthy with full NCTs. Indirectly, this discriminates against older drivers especially in rural areas where a car is essential due to lack of public transport. Many pensioners cannot afford to buy new or newish cars, yet their cars are fully NCTd and only used locally apart from hospital visits, etc.

When they do manage to get insured, it is double the cost and even a third-party cover is refused. If a car has a full NCT then insurers should be obliged to insure at a reasonable price. JOHN-PATRICK BELL, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim.

Thanks, Brigid

‘ANOIS teacht an earraigh, Beidh an lá ag dul chun síneadh, ’S tar éis na Féile Bríde, Ardóidh mé mo sheol’ (Now with the coming of spring, The days will be getting longer, And after the feast of Brigid, I will raise my sail) are the opening four lines of the beautiful poem Cill Aodáin, composed by the last of the wandering bards, the blind Anthony Raftery. They are among the best-known lines in Irish poetry, exhaling a long sigh of relief at the end of winter and conveying a feeling of exuberance at the stretch in the evenings and a return to active living. His reference to Brigid, Ireland’s female patron saint, confirms how much she is revered in this country.

She was born in 450AD and founded monasteries throughout Ireland, including her first in Kildare, where she was abbess.

Brigid died on February 1, 525AD. Her feast-day, Lá Fhéile Bríde, St Brigid’s Day, is celebrated on the February 1, when her memory is marked with the traditional making of the St Brigid’s Cross from reeds. The feast day has long symbolised hope, growth, renewal and the creativity of women.

Last year, a new public holiday was introduced to mark St Brigid’s Day. It falls on the first Monday in February, except when St Brigid’s Day falls on a Friday, in which case Friday, February 1 will be a public holiday. That won’t happen this year as St Brigid’s Day falls on Thursday. Nevertheless, with the public holiday falling next Monday, February 5, we can all look forward to a long weekend thanks to St Brigid.