From a bottle of wine a night, to gay teddy bears, ducks and climate change denial, it was a surreal and slightly insane week in Irish politics on the Floating Voter podcast.

The team of Kevin Doyle, Niall O’Connor and Philip Ryan were joined by the singer and musician, Frances Black, who has also now been elected to the Seanad.

Black’s work with families affected by addiction through her Rise Foundation was part of the reason for her to stand for the Seanad election and she was candid and honest about her own struggles with alcohol.

“My pattern of drinking was a bottle of wine a night,” she admitted. “But I didn’t like the feeling of needing to have alcohol and not being able to give it up. For me it was causing a problem in my life because I didn’t like the way it was making me feel, heightening my low self-esteem and sense of inadequacy. I didn’t like the feeling of powerlessness it brought and so I decided to seek help.

“You could have floored me when I was then told, ‘Yes Frances, you’re an alcoholic’. I wasn’t what we typically considered someone to be an alcoholic, falling around the place or waking up with the shakes. My family were shocked but they were also worried abut my drinking and my partner at the time wasn’t happy about it either. It was hard, but that’s when I gave it up.”