When Tommy Roche's two brothers killed themselves within five days last year, he embarked on a crusade to build the kind of treatment centre that might have helped them had they been alive.
After a lot of goodwill and enthusiasm, resulting in £100,000 being raised, committee members of the Aljeff Treatment Centre project in Limerick will meet the MidWestern Health Board's director of mental health, Mr Pat Brosnan, next week.
The committee claims the needs of its target group, those aged 15 to 24, are not being met in the city. But Mr Brosnan said he had a successful, community-based, treatment initiative for people with alcohol problems in the city.
"Aljeff" takes its name from Mr Roche's deceased brothers, Alan and Jeffrey. After 16 months of hard effort, he now recognises that the project needs a professional manager.
"We have applied for charitable status. We are putting a board of management in place and we will be looking for a managing director," he said.
The committee has been making inroads into its target of raising £1.5 million for a 12bed residential unit to treat addiction in young people.
Half of the £100,000 raised came from last year's J.P. McManus Golf Pro-Am charity event. The remainder came from flag days, charity nights and donations such as the £5,000 given this week by Aer Lingus Shannon-based cabin crew from the proceeds of a charity ball.
A major boost will come from the sale of a house set in 3.7 acres in the US, donated by the singer Sinead O'Connor. The sale price is expected to amount to between £800,000 and £1 million.
Among the committee members is a former independent election candidate, Ms Nora Bennis, who acts as secretary. The chairman is Mr Des Fitzgerald, a retired bookmaker. He said his sister, Dr Mary Fitzgerald, a lecturer in alcohol-drug studies and psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, will return to Limerick this summer and act as a consultant to the project.
Also on the committee is Father Joe Young, who was curate in the Southill area of Limerick until he went on sabbatical leave in December.
He is hoping a sponsor of a project manager will step forward now. "As I know myself over the years, sincerity and emotion will not produce the product at the end of the day," he said.
Both of Mr Roche's brothers hanged themselves while under the influence of alcohol. In the case of Jeffrey it happened the day after his brother's funeral. At the age of 22 Alan had become a victim of millennium hype, Mr Roche said, and Jeffrey, who was 26, had lost his best friend.
He had a drink problem himself but has successfully kept it under control for the past seven years. "Luckily enough I had Father Joe Young. We became good friends. He was the first person I trusted. He was my way back, he made the penny drop for me," he said.
A father of two and a former landscaper, Mr Roche has gone on the dole so he can devote himself full-time to the Aljeff project.
As in the rest of the State, the figures are startling. Over a three-year period 708 people attempted suicide in the midwest region. It is a highly complex problem where alcohol is often a significant precipitant, according to Ms Mary Begley, the health board's suicide strategy co-ordinator. Mr Brosnan said he was approaching the Aljeff project with "an open book" and was willing to advise them on how to proceed. Such a project needed firm proposals on how to bring to fruition the plans it has for its target group.
"My purpose will be to discuss with them what their primary objective is and how they might achieve that objective," he said.