Five-time British Champion Jockey Oisín Murphy has described his moments spent alone in a jail cell following a drink-driving incident last April as the "wake-up call" that sent him back to AA in a bid to tackle a long-standing issue with alcohol.
The Killarney native was fined £70,000 and banned from the road for 20 months at Reading Magistrates' Court earlier this year after pleading guilty to one count of driving a vehicle while over the limit.
Murphy drove his Mercedes A Class into a tree in Berkshire shortly after midnight on 27 April this year. In a revealing interview with Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday morning, Murphy described the moments after his arrest and how it led him to finally embrace Alcoholics Anonymous after an earlier failed attempt.
"My drinking was again outta control in early 2025 and it was noticeable to people around me," Murphy said. "I started going to AA in February 2025, and I don't know if I was yet ready to hand it over again to say to myself, 'I don't drink like a normal person'.
"In April, I thought I was having a normal evening - a few beers, went to watch the boxing, too many beers, and I crashed a car with a passenger in it. I could've killed myself and that person. I went back into AA and told the people in there what I'd done, most of them had already heard on the news.
"It could have been life changing. When I was arrested, being in that cell for a couple of hours, that could have been me and myself for the next, 10 or 20 years depending on the consequences of that crash.
"If there was ever a wake up call and a chance and a second chance, or a third chance or a tenth chance to realise that drink and me don't go well it was then."
Murphy described the process of tackling his demons as a "roller-coaster ride" and admitted that his initial intention to 'control' his addiction saw him fall into the trap of many who suffer from alcoholism. His April car accident proved to him that 'normal' drinking simply wasn't going to be an option.
"In Alcoholics Anonymous, there are other men and women like me which is always a nice feeling that one isn't alone," Murphy explained. "And of course, you're full of self-loading and hatred. I am anyway for all my actions, and the consequences of my actions.
"It's a tough kind of roller-coaster ride. That does get a little bit easier if you don't pick up the bottle. I judge myself every day. It's normally my performance in the saddle that people notice.
"I didn't come to the conclusion fully that Oisín Murphy couldn't drink until I crashed that car in April."
"When it came to the drinking... I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't get to this stage and I still have to work at it every day.
"I didn't come to the conclusion fully that Oisín Murphy couldn't drink until I crashed that car in April."
Murphy, who won the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye aboard Henry Dwyer's Asfoora at Longchamp just last month, went into detail about his "sickness" of trawling through social media - particularly after a bad ride - to see what racing fans were saying about him.
"It is a sickness. I dunno. I like to see the negative comments and posts," Murphy revealed. "It's been put to me in such a way that I should stop doing it. And of course I probably should, but it hasn't stopped me."
Murphy wrapped up a fifth British Champion Jockeys title last month at Ascot.
Oisín Murphy's new book, 'Sacrifice: A Year in the Life of a Champion Jockey', is out now. His full interview with Brendan O'Connor can be found at the top of this article.
