In Episode 11, I sit down with Jonathan, a 33-year-old man whose story is rooted in resilience, reflection, and breaking generational cycles.

Jonathan grew up in Summerhill, Sean Tracy Flats, just minutes from Sheriff Street — an environment very similar in many ways. Like so many of us, the flats became the playground, a place where childhood unfolded amid drugs, crime, and survival from morning to night.

Jonathan was bullied in school and struggled academically from a young age. Concentration was always difficult, and ADHD played a massive role in those early challenges. Drugs entered his life young, followed by criminality, juvenile detention centres, and eventually prison.

A powerful part of this conversation centres on grandparents and the safety they provided. Jonathan speaks about the deep sense of security and stability he felt with his nana, and I reflect on the same in my own life — how grandparents so often became our safe place when the world around us felt chaotic. Their role in children’s lives, particularly in disadvantaged communities, is something we both recognise as profoundly important.

Jonathan didn’t find recovery through residential treatment. Instead, it was during his final time in prison that he made a decision to change his life. His childhood sweetheart and long-term partner, Charlene, stood by him throughout everything, alongside the steady presence of his mother.

Jonathan speaks fondly of his nana Sally, who lived to see Jonathan sober, thriving, and doing well before she passed away — something that clearly means the world to him.

Now over five years sober, Jonathan is a devoted father to a young son who will never know him in addiction or behind prison walls. Today, Jonathan works within addiction services, has returned to education studying addiction studies, and hopes to continue his learning journey.

This episode is about recovery, family, the quiet strength of grandparents, and the power of choosing a different future.

In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Carroll, my cousin Christine’s brother-in-law, whose story offers a different starting point, but a very familiar ending.

Kevin grew up in Marino, in a stable home, with parents who ran a pub on the North Strand. He wasn’t shaped by poverty, criminality, or educational disadvantage in the way many others were: yet from a young age, Kevin speaks honestly about always feeling different from his brother and sister, and about struggles that began quietly beneath the surface.

He reflects on how growing up around money and alcohol influenced him, how control and belonging became tied to finances and friendships, and how issues with weight, self-esteem, and identity followed him into adolescence. Kevin opens up about starting to drink, smoke hash, and take ecstasy at a young age, and how cocaine eventually became his drug of choice.

Despite coming from a very different background, Kevin’s journey leads him to the same place as so many others: addiction, despair, and ultimately rehabilitation in Aiseri in 2019. He speaks openly and bravely about suicide, recovery, and the hard work of change.

Kevin also shares the powerful role his brother Gary played in his recovery: a constant presence who never gave up on him. Today, Kevin is a father of three daughters, in a new relationship, running his own business, and living a life rooted in honesty, growth, and hope.

This is a story that reminds us that addiction doesn’t discriminate — but recovery is possible.

Episode 9 brings a deeply personal conversation with someone very close to my heart: my godmother, Debbie O’Toole. Born and raised in Sheriff Street, Debbie carries a life story filled with both beautiful memories and some of the darkest experiences a child could witness.

Debbie speaks openly about growing up in a community marked by love, chaos, and survival. As a young girl, she witnessed traumatic events — a man being shot in the face, a child killed by a steamroller, and later another shooting that stayed with her for life. These experiences shaped the road she would walk.

Debbie shares how she fell into addiction at a very young age, finding heroin for the first time in prison after receiving her first sentence at just 16. She also speaks about being incarcerated with her mother. For Debbie, heroine numbed the pain she carried from childhood abuse and the realities of the streets — a substance that felt like relief, until it took everything from her.

Hoping to escape Dublin’s heroin epidemic, Debbie moved to London with her young son, only to be pulled deeper into addiction when she discovered crack cocaine. Realising the danger, she sent her son home to be cared for by her mother — a decision that would later allow them to rebuild a strong and loving relationship.

Debbie opens up about the turning point in her life: travelling to California and entering Victory Outreach, a ranch-style treatment programme where she found God, faith, and the first real chance at recovery. She speaks about the fear of coming back to Dublin, the challenge of rebuilding herself from the ground up, and the strength it took to stay clean.

Today, Debbie’s recovery is her greatest achievement. Her faith keeps her steady, her son is a huge part of her life, and she is a proud grandmother to eight grandchildren. We also revisit our own connection — the times she minded me when I was a child, long before addiction took hold of her life.

This is an honest, raw, and deeply moving conversation with a woman who survived more than most could imagine. Debbie’s story is one of trauma, faith, resilience, and redemption — a testament to the human spirit and the possibility of change, no matter how dark the path has been.

In episode 8, I sit down with 55-year-old Davie Fay from Sheriff Street, who talks about growing up when the flats felt like a giant playground – and how that same environment pulled him out of school at 10 and into Boscos, a “special” school set up for lads like him. 

Davie shares how early school exclusion and life on the streets paved the way to heroine use, and how losing his brother Nico and his close friend Jimmy shaped his journey. 

Today, Davie is in recovery and using his voice to campaign, give back, and bring hope to others. He also hosts a nightly TikTok live at 10pm called Hope Over Addiction , where he shows that no matter how far you’ve gone, there is always a way back.

Danny didn’t grow up in Sheriff Street, but he was always close by in Ballybough — another pocket of Dublin where grit, humour, and hardship live side by side. In this episode, Danny opens up about the impact school had on him, and how those early experiences chipped away at his self-belief and followed him into adulthood.

He speaks about the band he once performed in, the rush of a little bit of fame, and the heartbreak of coming home from England with no money, no qualifications, and no real direction. Danny talks honestly about losing himself for a while, in weekend drug use, in low self-worth, and in the pain of fractured relationships with his children.

But he also shares the turning point.

Danny is now the man behind Soul Haven in Sheriff Street: a space he created with the help of a local girl who gave him a room and a chance. It’s a place for people carrying trauma, grief, confusion, and hurt. A place for alternative healing, mindfulness, Amazonian tribal practices, and honest conversations that help people feel seen.

This episode is Danny’s journey through loss, searching, rebuilding and the quiet strength it takes to start again.

In this episode, I sit down with my daughter Carla, who is 22, for the most personal and powerful conversation I’ve ever recorded. Together, we talk openly about her experience of growing up around addiction and criminality, the impact of losing her dad, and how all of that shaped her childhood, her education, and the way she learned to navigate life’s challenges long before she should have had to.

Carla speaks with honesty, softness, and strength about what it was like to find herself again after years that were anything but easy. She shares how she made sense of the chaos around her, how she carried the weight of things she never asked for, and how she eventually accepted the new reality we now live in.

But this episode isn’t just about the past: it’s about hope. It’s about how far we’ve come. Carla talks about the darker moments in our relationship during the worst of my addiction, how she felt, and what it took for both of us to rebuild something real, respectful, and loving again.

Today, we have a bond that’s honest, connected, and full of gratitude and we talk about the small everyday things we do now that healed what once felt broken.

This episode is raw. It’s real. But above all, it’s a message of hope, healing, and the power of coming back to each other.

Episode 5 · Rhonda’s Story — Strength in Silence

In this episode, I sit down with my cousin Rhonda, the third of nine children from Sheriff Street. At just nine years old, Rhonda suffered a stroke that left her without movement on the right side of her body: her arm and leg. She spent a year in hospital for rehabilitation, working closely with a speech and language therapist who helped her regain her confidence and voice.

Rhonda speaks softly, with a gentleness that contrasts our inner-city roots, and she opens up about growing up in a big family, her resilience through childhood challenges, and the heartbreaking losses of her brothers Aidan, Gareth and Wayne. Her story is one of quiet strength, compassion, and the power of never giving up.

Episode 4: Amy — Losing her Ma, Finding Herself.

In this episode, I sit down with my cousin Amy: a girl from Sheriff Street who grew up with her ma by her side through everything. When Amy found her ma suddenly passed away last year, her world fell apart. What started as weekend drinking turned into addiction, anxiety, and trying to numb the pain any way she could.

Today, Amy is 9 weeks sober, showing up for herself one day at a time. She talks honestly about grief, addiction, being accepted into the community as a mother–daughter duo, and what it’s like finally choosing herself.

Raw. Emotional. Brave.

This is Amy’s story: of love, loss, and the courage to build a new life.

In this powerful episode of Tear Down These Walls, Lisa Byrne sits down with her cousin Emer, whose life has been marked by unimaginable pain: addiction, violence, and loss - but also by an extraordinary journey of faith and redemption.

Emer opens up about her past with raw honesty, sharing how she found the strength to rebuild her life and how her faith became her saving grace. This is a story of courage, surrender, and hope a reminder that even in our darkest moments, light can find its way through.

Christine Byrne Carroll shares her journey from Sheriff Street to Trinity College - facing the pain of losing her brother and the fear of nearly losing her son. A powerful story of resilience, courage and the belief that its never too late to begin again.

Real stories of loss, love and resilience - told with honesty and heart. From Dublin's inner city to personal transformation, Lisa Byrne shares conversations that break silence and build hope.