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.