MARY O’ROURKE

Former Longford/Westmeath TD

I think I’m pretty average. I never drink during the week. I drink a glass of wine if I’m out to dinner — that’s when I would have a glass of wine. But I would never think of having one at home. It’s an occasion, like a treat with friends.

I go out on a Saturday night. I have great friends who are husband and wife. They were great friends with Enda and I, and thankfully we’ve all remained friends, even though there’s no Enda now.

So the three of us go out together for a meal to a nice restaurant on a Friday or a Saturday night and we would always have a glass of wine with that. He takes red, I take red, and his wife takes white, so we’ve a glass each and then we eat our meal and talk and chat and everything. It’s not much it’s just the one. We don’t feel like it anymore.

I was drunk once, almighty drunk. It was in Athlone. I can’t remember everything. All I remember is how bad I felt the next day. I vowed that never again would I do that. I think I was in my thirties — it was a festival occasion. I don’t know what made me do it but it’s the only time ever and I can remember the feeling of not being in control of myself and then I remember feeling so rotten the next day. But I never again felt like that. No, thank God!

That was a once-off. In terms of a hangover cure, I know I stayed low that day. I stayed quiet and didn’t talk very much. I made a big pot of tea and I drank gallons of it.

A glass of red wine is my favourite drink, an Argentinian malbec. A rare occasion like a christening or a wedding I would take a gin and tonic with lemon and ice.

As I’ve got older I have less of a taste for drink. Since Enda died 15 years ago I have lived on my own and so I would never take a drink on my own. The enjoyment of a drink for me is the chat, it’s the to and fro with people.

I could imagine a life without drink. I think it might be bit duller on a Friday or Saturday night. With food and with company you like a glass of red wine. It is just delightful.