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Dillon Fergus O'Leary

Farewell to Dublin...

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Created on 2013-12-30 10:27:30 (#2137273), last updated 2013-12-30 (601 weeks ago)

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About

Name:	Dillon Fergus O'Leary
Birthdate:	May 10
Location:	New York, United States
Website:	+ dream like new york

Mini Bio

Dillon Fergus O'Leary is the youngest of three sons and four daughters born to Isla and Fergus O'Leary. First born was Keiran, and every two years following (almost like clockwork), they welcome a new addition until Dillon was the last and Isla finally made Fergus get the snip. After Keiran came second son, Ailbe, and then three daughters, Aoife, Aislinn and Brigid, before Dillon made his appearance in the world at a kicking 9lbs 2oz and there was ten years age difference between Keiran and Dillon.

Keiran was the chilled, cool and collected kid of the bunch, which is what made him such an awesome big brother. But the children were all their own people and no one was surprised when Keiran went into music professionally with being in a band, and then becoming a music teacher. After everything that happened with his high school sweetheart, Mandy Fitzpatrick, they understood when he needed to get out of Dublin where he eventually hit the big time by becoming the bassist for Angel Shaw's band he hand-picked to go on a six month around the world tour with him. The rest of Dillon's siblings were scattered all over the place as to careers. Keiran was the musician (and he taught Dillon to play piano when he was 9 years old), Ailbe was the lawyer, Aoife ended up in politics, Aislinn a manager of a guest house in Edinburgh, Brigid in college doing veterinary science, and Dillon always wanted to be a surgical nurse.

Unfortunately, the easy access to booze in Dublin and Dillon's charismatic and sweet-talking personality, he soon found himself with a troublesome problem with alcohol from around the age of 15. In fact, his 15th year on earth, he both had his first beer and lost his virginity. Once he realised how awesome both of those things were, it was hard for him to turn back. Every weekend, he would be out on pub crawls with his friends (they knew which pubs were owned by family friends and wouldn't be ID checking), or partying it up. It was lucky he liked school, because he still managed to do well and scrape the grades he needed for Nursing at university, but by the time he graduated high school, he was drunk more often than not. By the end of his first year of his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Dublin City University, he found himself in hospital with acute active gastritis and lowered liver function after partying way too hard, leading to him throwing up blood all over the front steps of his home.

The was the first time he tried to kick the drinking problem. It lasted all of two months before he went to a friend's 18th birthday party, and he drunk so much, the night was completely wiped out of his memory. He didn't fess up to his folks because they had already sat him down and given him the lecture about drinking and threatened him with AA meetings, etc. etc. after being in hospital. Instead, he told them he was going camping for a week with some mates, but actually spent the week in bed trying to sleep off one epic hangover that wouldn't quit. Being the youngest of the family, his brothers and sisters had all moved on in their life by the time he had made it to university, and none of them lived in Dublin any longer, so they weren't readily available to lay the law down to him either. None of them even knew much about Dillon's problem with alcohol until his 21st birthday.

It was May and the beginning of the summer. The party was so epic, the police had been called. A few kids were arrested for underage drinking, and with his parents away in Belfast for their wedding anniversary believing Dillon would only have a few friends stay over to play pool for his birthday, they had no idea their house was being trashed, burnouts done in the front lawn, and pot and ecstasy being present under their roof. Which is the censored story he like to tell people. In reality, he was the one who stupidly got behind the wheel and smashed it into the lampost. He only suffered minor injuries, but the female driver was seriously hurt and ended up in a wheelchair. Needless to say, it was the most trashed Dillon had ever been and he ended up paralytic, once again carted off in the back of an ambulance to the hospital. Only this time, he had alcohol poisoning, high blood pressure, and a stomach ulcer, and ended up with DUI charges and lost his drivers licence. At 21 years of age. He loved drinking far too much, and he was a huge partier to want to give it up so easily. He was extensively social, had piles of friends, and drinking was just what they all grew up knowing. It was an Irish thing, right?

Only the latest turn of events really scared him, but it was too late to back track and apologise to his folks, and DUI charges weren't exactly something you could sweet-talk your way out of. They were furious, and it had come in the wake of receiving a letter from the university alerting them to Dillon's suspension for turning up to class drunk on day. Threats of AA meetings and drying up, or else, weren't going to cut it this time. As far as they were concerned, it was time for drastic measures. They figured if Mandy's younger brother, Euan could move out of the country and clean up after his severe addictions, maybe that was exactly what Dillon needed a healthy dose of too. A lot of discussion with Keiran followed, and it lead to him agreeing for Dillon to go live with him in New York after Christmas once the dust settled in the wake of Euan's horrific shooting.

Dillon was PISSED, to say the very least. Unlike most, he didn't want to go to New York at all. Despite being the same age (him only being three days older) as Euan's nephew, Corey and them being pals, he didn't want to have a bar of it. Sure, he was suspended from university, but he could go back once that was done and he only had a year left of his course anyway. He didn't want to leave all his friends, or Dublin, let alone Ireland entirely. But he didn't have much say in the matter because he had no job to support himself and his folks had been paying his way through university. He couldn't shake the fear he had of the health dive the drinking had given him, though, and after a long, long chat on Skype with Keiran on Christmas Day, his big brother promising he would do everything he could to help him clean up, and even get him into a college in New York to finish his degree, Dillon finally agreed to go. If he was truly honest, he missed his big brother and maybe living with him for awhile was exactly what he needed.

Keiran rarely as the sort to get his feathers ruffled. He was happy to help out, but he wouldn't take shit either. Dillon wants to dry up and finish college, finally getting the job he dreams of working as a theatre nurse. The home truths Dillon was issued by Keiran in that he wouldn't get anywhere without hard work and a smart head on his shoulders sunk in, and on the day before New Years Eve, Dillon boarded a flight at Heathrow bound for New York City, bidding Dublin farewell, and hoping he could have some of the strength Euan had that it took to kick something like being an alcoholic.