Danny O'Donoghue opens up about struggle with sobriety after death of Mark Sheehan

After struggling with being back in Dublin following Mark's passing, he leaned on alcohol despite intending to have an alcohol-free Christmas, and is now ten months sober

The Script's Danny O'Donoghue and Glen Power sat down with Patrick Kielty on The Late Late Show on Friday.

The bandmates opened up about their grief following the death of Mark Sheehan in 2023. The talented musician, from Dublin, passed away at the age of 46 after a brief illness.

He co-founded The Script with lifelong friend and vocalist, Danny O'Donoghue and drummer, Glen Power. The band confirmed his passing in 2023, and today shared a touching message to mark the anniversary.

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Glen and Danny expressed how important Mark is to them, and how essential his role was in making The Script a success.

"He really was the bridge that brought us all together. If me and Dan hadn't met Mark, we'd still be in our bedrooms playing music thinking, it's going to happen some day...." Glen said.

"We're like a transformer, we're all parts of the whole and he put us together and then you realised what this could be."

Danny shared that losing Mark was one of the most painful moments of his life, alongside the passing of his parents.

The singer’s mum Ailish O’Donoghue passed away at her home in February 2018, ten years after his father Shay died of stomach aneurysm in 2008.

"I lost my mum and dad on Valentines Day. I thought that the worst was over, all this stuff that we had built up together as a band, it was life changing because we were, like Glen said, broken."

Danny also opened up about his journey with sobriety.

After struggling with being back in Dublin following Mark's passing, he leaned on alcohol despite intending to have an alcohol-free Christmas. He is now ten months sober.

"Christmas time leads back into the grief thing. I was getting on the plane and I knew that Dublin was going to be triggering for me and I said I'm going to come back for Christmas and just be sober for the whole Christmas... I pretty much spent the rest of the Christmas drunk," he said candidly.

"It was really difficult for me to deal with being back in Dublin and seeing everybody for the first time since Mark passed away... On the 27 ^th December I decided enough was enough."

"I've been off the drink now 10 months".

"If you're drinking on grief, you're not getting over the grief, you're just kicking it down the road."

Glen spoke of getting sober 13 years ago when he was in Australia.

Glen has had his own journey with sobriety, trying to pursue an alcohol-free life 13 years ago while in Australia.

"I was in a hotel room, I was on my own and I was quite afraid because I felt so bad and I thought what would this life be like if I didn't feel sick anymore."

"I used to wake up hungover, I used to go to bed pretty hungover. I just woke up one day and said let’s give this thing a try".

"It's not an Irish problem, it's an internal problem. No matter where I am in the world, there I am, I have to deal with myself."

Glen said that getting sober was the second greatest gift in his life, after his son.

"It started really worrying my mum and dad, and I think one of the biggest gifts I gave them was not ringing them at 3am in the morning, out of me mind falling over, and they were hearing things crashing. They were so happy when I stopped."

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