How Damien Conquered His Demons

Internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey has always believed in the healing and redemptive powers of music. So much so that the 39-year-old Dubliner would recommend anybody suffering from depression to join a choir.

“It’s true some people wouldn’t have the best ear for music. In a choir, people who haven’t got a great ear are pulled up to tune with the other singers. I’ve always been getting the crowd to be like a choir and sing, because there’s no better feeling than when a few hundred people are singing the same song and feeling the same emotions. It’s beautiful.
“Singing is an ancient thing as well,” he continues. “We used to look at the birds in the trees. That’s how we learned to sing. When I’m feeling down or blue, I sit on the side of the bed and sing all my favourite songs. I always feel much better after that.”
Last year Dempsey became an ambassador for the Coolmine Therapeutic Community in Dublin. First established in 1973, and run by professional staff and community volunteers, Coolmine has helped literally thousands with drug and alcohol problems to overcome their addictions and get back into mainstream society.
“A friend of mine called Eoghan Coughlan, a singer from Cork, used to do workshops out there,” he recalls. “He got me in a couple of times to talk to the lads and sing a few songs for them. He asked me would I like to be a patron. I said, ‘No problem’, because I’ve seen the good work. They’re saving people – from hell, from the grave, from prison, from a life of torture.
“So I come in the odd time and play a few songs and chat to the heads that are there. I do their graduations as well. It’s a year-long course. If they stay off drugs, they get their diplomas, and there’s a graduation ceremony.”
Having spent a lot of time in Coolmine, he sees an urgent need for the Government to invest in similar institutions around the country.
“They should be funding a lot more places like Coolmine, because a lot of people can’t get into it,” he says. “If there were more options, it’d obviously be better. They’re doing great work – they have over 1,000 people a year to provide treatment and support for, and for their families as well. They have the only mother and child-care residence in Ireland, so mothers and pregnant women can access treatment without their kids going into care – the kids can come with the mothers. There’s a real need for more places like it all around the country.”
As a creative dynamo himself, Dempsey believes artists are often more susceptible to depression.
“I think, if you’re gonna be doing creative stuff, you have to be deep and sensitive and you probably ‘feel’ emotions more than other people,” he reflects. “You probably feel more pain than others. Some people don’t really give a shit, they just get over it. That’s not me. I get bogged down. Maybe I feel more empathy. A lot of artists are like that: it’s where the writing comes from. You heal yourself by writing about the things that you’re feeling painful about... or very emotional about.”
Dempsey recounts that he suffered badly from depression himself in his youth. “Yeah, at one stage when I was in my late teens, it got really bad,” he says. “It just got worse and worse, and every day I was just getting deeper and deeper into myself. I was smoking a lot of hash at the time, so I think that was affecting me. For about six months it was really bad. Then I started meditation. There’s a place up on Eccles Street. That really helped a lot. It kind of lifted the cloud for me.”
The idea of meditation came about after he’d reached out for help and told somebody about his mental health struggles. “It was actually my mother I asked,” he smiles. “My head was totally fucked. She said meditation would definitely help me.”
His mother was right. “I was able to clear my mind of all thoughts. The buzz I got was better than any drug. It was just a rush of energy, whatever you call it whenever you turn off your mind. I try to meditate whenever I can. I do yoga, then meditation at the end of it. It’s a beautiful thing, if you can do it for a few minutes every day.”
What would the singer recommend to anybody in mental despair right now?
“I’d tell them to talk to somebody. Speak to a youth worker or someone like that,” he advises. “But also I think it’s really good to exercise, get into nature, swim in the sea, go walking and hiking, just getting away from the concrete. Plus healthy eating is really important – try to eat good stuff, herbs and greens and so forth and make sure you’re getting enough vitamins.”
Any musical recommendations to help people through the darkness?
“The Dubliners always cheer me up – and Planxty, Bob Marley, stuff like that. Some soul music: Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield. Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew, Christy Moore. Soul singers, really. I used to go to traditional music sessions and sit at the bar and listen to these tunes, that were written by people going through horrible times in the past. From evil, they created beauty.”

Damien is the official ambassador of Coolmine Therapeutic Community. To donate €4 towards vital services, please text COOLMINE41 to 50300. Find out more on www.coolmine.ie or phone 087-1229307 for their Outreach service.