Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder had Mayo roots

By Tom Gillespie

ONE-HUNDRED-and-thirty-two years ago a baby girl was born on the outskirts of Castlebar who went on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bridget Della Mary Gavin came into the world on January 1, 1889, to Barbara Neary and her husband, who lived on a small parcel of farmland called Gavin's Field in Shanvalley, Burren.

In the spring of 1896, her parents and other family members left Ireland in the hope of a better life in America, eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio.

Della was a talented musician who gave private lessons to help bolster the family income.

In 1914 she entered the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine in Ohio, where she was given the religious name of Sister Mary Ignatia, and was assigned to teach music. She did this for about 10 years, but found it ‘too hectic’ and suffered a nervous breakdown. When she recovered, she was assigned by her religious congregation work in the admissions office of St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio.

By the 1930s, Sr. Ignatia, according to Wikipedia, was in charge of admissions at the hospital. Despite its policy of not treating ‘drunks’, she began to do so furtively in 1934. On August 16, 1935, armed with a medical diagnosis of acute gastritis issued by a staff member of the hospital, she admitted an alcoholic patient to the hospital, making it the first in the world to treat alcoholism as a medical condition.

That patient would be the first of millions to participate in the 20-step programme of recovery, the beginning of Alcoholic Anonymous (AA), which she founded with Dr. Bob in St. Thomas Hospital.

Many of the ideas of AA - including the use of tokens to mark milestones in sobriety - were introduced by Gavin. She would give alcoholics leaving St. Thomas Hospital a medallion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, instructing them that the acceptance of the medallion represented commitment to God, to AA, and to recovery. She added that if they were going to drink, they should first return the medallion.

One day during the '30s, Sister Ignatia received a phone call from ‘Bill’ who told her that he was going to have to return his Sacred Heart badge because ‘I’ve had a rough morning and I’m going out to get a drink’.

The Sister sighed, and then told him, ‘Don’t do it. Wait until you finish work at 5 o’clock and then call me again. I’ll pray for you. Whatever you do, don’t send that badge back.'

At 5 o’clock, 'Bill’ rang back. ‘It’s OK, Sister. I never took that drink, I think I’m going to be alright now thanks to the Sacred Heart and you.’

Such telephone calls were not uncommon because Sister Ignatia had ministered to thousands of men and women who had succumbed to alcoholism for many years.

She was the first to recognise the use of coffee for alcoholics, insisting that it be freely available in every stage of recovery. When she was transferred to her congregation's St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland, she refused to compromise on the inclusion of a coffee bar for the ward she was setting up for alcoholics in that institution, Rosary Hill Solarium.

Between 1935 and 1965 Gavin successfully treated thousands of alcoholics. She pioneered the recognition of alcoholism among priests and religious sisters.

In 1954, Gavin was awarded the Catherine of Siena Medal by the Theta Phi Alpha fraternity. She was honoured for her ‘outstanding achievement in one of our major problems affecting our country today - alcoholism’.

In March 1961, Gavin received a personal letter from President John F. Kennedy, recognising her service, which she accepted, not for herself, but in the name of her religious congregation and profession.

The letter read:

Dear Sister Mary Ignatia:

Through an admirer of yours, the President has learned of the fine work you have done in the past at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, and, more recently, at St. Vincent’s in Cleveland.

He has been informed that a large number of citizens have been restored to useful citizenship as a result of your efforts. As you have been a strong influence for the good to many people, you have added strength to your community and nation.

Gavin was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of fame in 1991.

The March 10, 2008, edition of Modern Healthcare magazine reported that Gavin had been honoured as a 2008 inductee into their ‘Health Care Hall of Fame’.

In 2008, a portion of East 22nd Street in Cleveland was renamed Sr. Ignatia Way in honour of her service at St. Vincent Charity Hospital - located on that street.

Sr. Ignatia continued nursing until May 1965, when she was sent for retirement to the congregation's motherhouse in Richfield, Ohio. She died 11 months later, on April 1, 1966, at the age of 77. She was buried in the motherhouse cemetery. The crowd at her funeral was estimated at some 3,000 people.

On May 24, 2017, a plaque was unveiled in Castlebar by the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Michael Neary, in memory of Sr. Ignatia, known as 'the angel of deliverance' to tens of thousands of men and women afflicted by alcoholism in the United States.

The plaque was mounted on the wall of the Family Centre at Chapel Street.

A further memorial to Sister Ignatia has been erected in Shanvally, where the crumbling remains of the Gavin cottage still stand.

Although a book has been written about the unselfish contribution of the Mayo woman to the field of alcoholism treatment and AA in the US, she is largely an unsung heroine.