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ALMOST FOUR YEARS after Gary Speed was found hanged in his home, his family are still looking for answers about exactly what happened to him.
But they have found comfort and help in an Irish suicide-prevention charity that launched this week in London, and have donated counselling rooms in the memory of the former Welsh international football star and manager.
The Gary Speed Rooms were unveiled in the House of Lords at Westminster as part of Irish charity Console’s official UK launch, and will be situated in one of their two new centres in London.
Speaking at the launch event, Gary’s mother Carol said that she might never find out what really happened to her son, but that Console had been a big help in her time of need.
“We haven’t got any answers about Gary’s death, and we probably never will, but as a family we know that Console are always there and only a phone call away,” she said.
If the Gary Speed Rooms help one person in mental health crisis, then that will be a success.
Speed was found by his wife hanged in his home on 27 November 2011 when he was 42 years old. An inquest returned a narrative verdict on his death and failed to confirm whether he had intended to die by suicide.
The CEO and founder of Console, Paul Kelly, told TheJournal.ie about how the Speed family contacted the charity after Gary’s death.
“They made contact with us through a friend and we worked with the Speed family, supporting them through their grief and through their loss when Gary died,” he said.
The Speed family wanted to return the help that Console had given them and raised money for the counselling rooms through a series of golf classics attended by football stars such as Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and Gordon Strachan.
“We feel that the golf days have been a fitting memorial to Gary,” said Carol.
“People like Michael Owen have played in each one, and we also have had great support from the likes of Denis Taylor and former Welsh manager Mike England.”
Console
Console is dedicated to supporting people who feel that they are at risk of suicide as well as those bereaved after the death of a loved one by suicide. It was founded in 2002 by Kelly after the death of his sister.
He said that the feelings of guilt and despair his family felt after the death is what inspired him to start the charity, which sought to help those recently bereaved by a loved one dying by suicide.
“And that’s why I founded Console initially – to support those who are bereaved by suicide and to help them through their grief and through their loss.”
Console has since grown into a nationwide suicide prevention charity in Ireland, with a 24-hour suicide helpline and centres in almost every county. Trained counsellors are employed to help those most at risk and it has a text-in service for people who don’t want to make a phone call.
After he gave a keynote note address at a Suicide Prevention and Bereavement conference in England in 2013, Kelly was approached by a number of English organisations – including the NHS and the Metropolitan Police – about setting up a similar service there.
“The UK has a slightly higher suicide rate per 100,00 people (11.9 compared to 11.1 in most recent confirmed statistics) and we feel that our highly specialised services can help make a difference in London and beyond,” he said.
Over 500 people die by suicide in Ireland every year and Console receives over 3,000 phone calls per-month on its Suicide Helpline. It raises much of the money needed for its services itself and is part funded by the HSE.
Console’s 24 helpline can be reached on 1800 247 247 or you can text HELP to 51444 or visit them on www.console.ie.
Helplines:
Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
Console 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
Aware 1890 303 302 (depression, anxiety)
Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie - (suicide, self-harm)
Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)
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Outside Father John Misty at Vicar Street last year with the band due on stage any minute and me still ticketless, I decided to offer a tout face value for a ticket. He told me that he’d rather rip it up in his pocket than give it to me at face value, except his language was more colourful that.
Anyway, as luck would have it, a fan going past saw this exchange and gave me a spare ticket he had for free. I couldn’t resist goading the tout with it.
Niall
Touts are linked to criminal gangs and criminality, one day they are selling tickets the next it is counter fit cigerates or worse drugs. My favorite story is outside Thomond park before when the stadium has a capacity of 13,000 and tickets nearly impossible to come by two touts got the crap kicked out of them and there tickets taken while the cops looked on as if nothing happened.
The big question is how do they get the tickets, corrupt people in sporting and the music hierarchy, .i really cannot come from any other source.
Tickets that go on sale for events are there for anyone to buy. Touts use multiple credit cards to buy their tickets. It’s no real mystery.
Darach
Not always true. The issue in Rio of the Irish Tickets comes from a company not credit cards, the example i used in Thomand Park, tickets did not go on line. The Issue of ALL Ireland final tickets go through club or gaa committees. Touts have contacts within organisations where they get tickets, like the Issue in Rio through a company or organisation, Yes some tickets are sourced by credit card, however you would be very niavie to think this is the case all tickets. The Touts are always the same weather it be Thomand Park, The Aviva or Croke Park regardless of sport or concert type.
Should be an official ticket exchange booth for genuine fans. For free or a small fee you lodge a ticket and collect payment after. To ensure touts don’t buy you could situate it in a place where you gave to go in straight away or the ticket is voided. This would cut out some scans and ensure if you have a spare it goes to a legit fan.
Conor
Good Idea
In scotland and Glasgow they kick the crap out of Touts and it seems to be effective
They do that in NYC for the theatres.
No shortage of tickets for Thomond these days as the rugby bandwagon grinds to a halt. Also it’s counterfeit not “counter fit”. I do like the goading the tout part of the story though.
No I’d rather spend my hard earned cash on coke and hoovers.
Hookers lol
The suction on a Dyson is something special.
Snorting coke up your hoover is inadvisable.
Stop talking about my hoover like that, you don’t even know it.
Has this publications sister publications Adverts.ie and Donedeal banned the practice or indeed wider Irish media too? And what exactly constitutes touting? Is it selling at a huge mark up, or any mark up at all?
Their sister sites that you mentioned also allow the unregulated sale of dogs which which supports puppy farming in this country. Remember this the next time they have an article showing their fake outrage about puppies being found at Dublin Port etc.
I often travel to London with my wife as my son lives and works in London. I have checked online for tickets to see a show or catch a football match and the prices are extorinately high. These resellers are legalised ticket touts.
I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is!
Once tried to buy three tickets off a tout outside Croker for Ireland v Serbia friendly in May 2008. A Garda nearby saw us, walked over and told the tout to clear off. He then lectured us about buying from touts, before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a strip of tickets and handing us over three for the Cusack Stand – for free! Tout was bullying and we were happy out, with our hard earned € still in our pockets.
Know a man that bought a ticket from a tout at an enormous price for the football all Ireland, only to be told at the style that he was two weeks too late. It was for the hurling all Ireland!!
Lousy, but he should have read the damn thing. I know a chap who once went to an Oxegen festival site & paid €300 for a weekend ticket only to discover it had already been scanned in at the gate. Lousy b@stard used it and then passed it through the fence to his f***er friend.
Always try Toutless dot com
Great resource for face value tickets.
At around 5pm of Slane 2002 (duff ticket for a tenner that got through) and about 2 days before Oxegen 2005, on both occasions I made an offer they sneered, I pointed out that their time to turn a profit was nearly up and turned to walk away and they agreed. Remember, there are times when the squeeze is on them, and know when to walk away.
I once paid €100 for a €35 ticket. I was desperate at the time. But in retrospect, it was a mistake, one I did not repeat. There are more important things in life than not having a ticket to an event and just bite the bullet rather than let the tout win.
But did you enjoy the event?
I did, to be honest. But looking back on it now, it wouldn’t bother me if I’d missed it. It’s one those in the moment type things, but not a life defining event or anything. There’s always going to be greater demand than supply for some things, don’t like seeing scheisters score big time from it. Probably just getting older. And wiser. Hopefully.
I bought a ticket to Sinead O’Connor outside the Olympic Ballroom in Dublin in 1987 from a tout. £5 for a £3.50 ticket I believe. Robbed.
If you’re looking up a ticketed event on Ticketmaster and they are sold out, Ticketmaster will then prompt you with a link to their own legitimised touting website. Discovered this while looking for Massive Attack tickets earlier this yr, they were on sale for between 125%-200% of face value
I once bought a trout.
From a dyslexic illegal ticket seller I presume.
Have you taken an ‘ F ‘ ?
Young people regularly buy tickets at the usual outlets for rock concerts at ‘face value’ – and they are being bled dry by the promoters, who go smiling all the way to the bank.
I can’t imagine going to a stadium without a ticket, would be too disappointing to come up short having been part of the pre-match buzz. That said, I don’t think I’d ever pay more than face value for anything, I’d rather hole up in the pub and drink the base ticket price if we win.
That said, I did once sell tickets on ebay for a tidy profit (Munster v Toulouse, Heineken cup final 2008) because I balked at the cost of travel and the prospect of sharing a hotel room floor.
I told people I’d sold them to a friend of a friend, because there was a big hunt for tickets, so technically I’m a dirty rotten tout :)
If you see a tout kick em up the hole…S*um
I wanted to when Metallica played The Point whilst touring the Black Album but my father wouldn’t let me. Needless to say, I was very upset, probably not as upset as I would’ve been had I bought one and it turned out to be fake.
Good on you dad. No kid should be exposed to the devil’s music (which, incidentally, is exactly what parents of white kids said about Elvis’ music back in the mid 1950′s)
That’s why I never would buy a ticket from random touts. Too likely that it’s not even a valid ticket. It’s hard to miss out when they go on sale, but at least you get to spend your own money some other time, or on a DVD of the live gig.
Tip, wait til 2 or 3 songs into a gig then go up to a scalper they’ll be looking to shift the tickets for any price to make back money. This was common in Manchester for the recent stone roses gigs. Tickets valued at £55 being sold for at most £20
I went along to a Bruce Springsteen gig with no ticket, the gig had just started so the guy actually gave me a discount & I paid a good bit less than my friends whom had tickets!
Yes, but you’d made the effort to go anyway, good on you. Without knowing whether you’d get a ticket. It’s the chance you take. I hate touts profiting from people genuinely into the band and the band don’t even gain from fans paying way over the odds.
Got a ticket to see Madonna for a €5 worse money I ever spent
Yes, a good few times. I rather pay a little over the odds and get into a gig or a match than sit at home missing out.
When your stuck your stuck
Usually you can get one from a decent fan outside. Those touts are parasites. Always the same couple of fellas outside the gigs – the lad on the crutches and his cronies.
I remember a girl buying a ticket for Ryan Adams from a tout in front of my face and just like that she realised it was from the night before – “nothing I can do love”. Infuriating. Thankfully the mate I was with had a spare ticket and gave it to her.
People saying ‘no’ are clearly people who have no social lives. Anyone who goes to gigs or matches has had to deal with touts at one stage or another.
If you are a regular gig goer you get used to checking ticket sites, venues etc for release dates for tickets and then you buy them. The people who watch live music the most are the least likely to get stung paying touts.
Gigs were around before the internet. If you’ve be going to live music for 30 years or more, you’ve used a tout at some stage.
No but I bet you some guy from a Catholic school did. Expect the Journal to have a special feature on it.
Many times when living in USA for minor sporting events. Not such a huge mark up or face value. Common enough, no laws about face value sales.
If I havent a ticket for a game, id usually wait until after K.O to buy one for below face value from a tout stuck with any. Often worth it for missing 5-10mins.
Well in my case I had one of the best nights ever, unfortunately I got separated from my friends within minutes so was on my own & managed to blag my way into the stalls ( in the rds ) & had one of the best seats in the place!! :-)
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