In a feature on the then new âCoolmine Drug-Free Therapeutic Communityâ in 1973, this newspaper quoted its founder, Paddy Rossmore, as saying it had been inspired by the problems of an unnamed âfriendâ. Rossmore had known nothing about drugs before meeting this friend, he said. The Dublin treatment centre was the result of a painful learning process that ensued.
As explained in his obituaries this week, the friend was rock-star Marianne Faithfull, whom Rossmore once planned to marry. She had ditched her previous boyfriend Mick Jagger in 1970, in favour of this shy aristocrat from Monaghan, less used to featuring in the gossip columns.