![\"\u2018I](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5115138_5_articleinline_DAVE_SMITH_A_1_281_29.jpg\" "\\"\u2018I")
\u2018I want to make the world a slightly better place.\u2019 Dave Smith from Be OK Garage \u2014 a car-based support group for men in Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney<\/p>\nAn indoor karting arena in the middle of a Dublin industrial estate is probably not the first place you\u2019d think of when it comes to hosting a gathering on mental health. But last month, a dozen or so car lovers from different parts of Ireland gathered at Kylemore Karting for the latest in a series of events run by Be OK Garage.<\/p>\n
The group is helping men to open up about their mental health through a shared love of motors. While this particular get-together indulged attendees\u2019 Formula One fantasies, other meet-ups are simpler affairs, gathering in car parks or open spaces to admire each other\u2019s wheels, share tips on making them funkier, and, critically, discuss anything that might be happening under the bonnet of the person themselves.<\/p>\n
Its founder, Dave Smith, has always loved cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to rallies with my father and uncle as a child,\u201d recalls the Dubliner. \u201cBack when you could stand on the side of the road next to a car going a hundred miles an hour. I loved them. I was fascinated with how things worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn school, I found it very difficult to focus on a topic that didn\u2019t interest me. I did a terrible Leaving Cert, but I went on and got two degrees in engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of that apparent distraction was later explained with an ADHD diagnosis. Before that, Smith went into a career in aircraft engineering, where he found like-minded individuals who were \u201call mad into cars\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first was a 1999 Honda Integra, which I bought in a car park in Airside for \u20ac1,050,\u201d says the 39-year-old father of two. \u201cThat was a lot of money when I was an apprentice. I never drove a stock car. I always wanted to make it a little bit different, make it my own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I want to make the world a slightly better place.\u2019 Dave Smith from Be OK Garage \u2014 a car-based support group for men in Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney<\/p>\n
As Smith\u2019s passion for collecting and modifying cars grew, so did his \u201centhusiasm for drinking and partying\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a very poor relationship with alcohol,\u201d he says. \u201cI just got as drunk as possible whenever I drank. I never understood someone who could have one or two drinks and leave it at that. I didn\u2019t realise it at the time, but looking back on it now, it was a way to quiet my brain down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith and his wife had their first child during covid. The boy\u2019s birth was difficult and, without family support in the early days of childcare, the couple struggled to cope. Smith had his first in a series of breakdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust before the birth of my second child, I was suffering from severe anxiety,\u201d he says \u201cI was finding no joy in life at all. I was having a particularly bad day one day when I heard my son say, \u2018Is daddy sad again?\u2019. This was coming from a three-year-old and will stay with me for the rest of my life. I decided something had to be done one way or the other. I stopped drinking, went into therapy and started taking antidepressants, which really worked for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of his mental health reset, Dave quit his \u201chigh-pressure\u201d job in aircraft engineering and went into the civil service. All of a sudden, he found a life that gave him more time to follow his true passion \u2014 that love of cars. To celebrate one year off alcohol in 2024, he bought himself an R33 Nissan Skyline, which he transported home in a small convoy of car-loving friends he\u2019d met since going sober.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took a picture of myself and the car in my driveway, posted it on Instagram and then that started to turn into a little group of similar car people. I hosted a few meets in local car parks. Small seminars, announced on Instagram. I wanted to give people somewhere where they were comfortable and felt welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5115141_5_articleinline_DAVE_20SMITH_20_20_10.jpg\" "\\"Dave")
Dave Smith from Be OK Garage – a car-based support group for men at Darndale, Dublin Picture: Gareth Chaney<\/p>\n
He eventually named the group Be OK Garage after a small tattoo on his arm, which reminds him to \u2018be OK\u2019 when he\u2019s feeling down.<\/p>\n
The group has gathered momentum. Smith\u2019s Instagram following, @davebokgarage, has reached almost 7,000, and he was recently appointed as an ambassador for charities Men\u2019s Health Forum in Ireland (MHFI) and Suicide or Survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they approached me, I wasn\u2019t sure,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not trained. I\u2019m not a medical professional. But they encouraged me, saying that I have lived experience, which was almost as valuable because it resonates with people.\u201d<\/p>\n
National programme manager for Men\u2019s Health in the HSE, Dr Shane O\u2019Donnell says that initiatives like Be OK Garage are exactly what men need more of if we are to tackle issues around their mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely been more public discussion around men\u2019s mental health in recent years,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about providing the space and the right time and setting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Men aren\u2019t going to come up and start talking about their mental health straight away, so it\u2019s important that space is provided.\n <\/p>\n
Before joining the HSE, O\u2019Donnell was involved in several studies and projects on men and mental health, including MHFI\u2019s CAIRDE initiative, which aimed to reduce suicide stigma and enhance knowledge of suicide and mental health issues in the Irish construction industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were aiming for 400 men, and 1,700 men filled out the survey,\u201d says O\u2019Donnell. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe how many people wanted to complete it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initiative found that stigma, rigid masculine norms, low mental health literacy and workplace cultures were the main drivers preventing construction workers from seeking support.<\/p>\n
As a result of its findings, CAIRDE developed and piloted two training model: A General Awareness Training (GAT) to build personal mental health literacy and reduce suicide stigma among workers and a Connector\/Manager Training to help site managers and leaders recognise distress, offer mental health first aid, and signpost workers to professional help.<\/p>\n
Finding that common ground is as important as ever. Though Ireland\u2019s overall suicide rate has declined significantly over the past two decades, with numbers down by almost a third, almost everyone on this island has been touched by suicide. Despite today\u2019s apparent openness around men\u2019s mental health, men still make up the bulk of those deaths, with 80% of total suicides. Statistics from the last ten years show that suicide rates of men aged roughly 35 to 54 have gone up and that this age bracket accounts for the majority of deaths by suicide among men.<\/p>\n
As part of his research for a 2018 publication entitled Middle Aged Men and Suicide in Ireland, O\u2019Donnell spoke to different groups of men from various socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds to get a sense of their mental health experiences in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I found was there was a baseline masculinity that they grew up with,\u201d says O\u2019Donnell. \u201cThey learn that expressing emotions isn\u2019t manly. Big boys don\u2019t cry. So they might suppress their emotions or turn to things deemed more manly. You might drink alcohol, or you might take drugs and get irritable or angry because you\u2019re not sure how to deal with being sad. And then there\u2019s a stigma, not only around mental health itself but also seeking help to deal with it. You\u2019re expected to be able to sort this out on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that reason, O\u2019Donnell says \u201cengaging men in any health intervention\u201d is often easier when they have \u201ca credible role model\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have to be celebrities or sportsmen or artists, it can be your neighbour down the road. And when these people come out and say that they\u2019ve struggled, that\u2019s really powerful for men. It normalises openness and goes a long way to reducing stigma, which makes it easier for organisations like the HSE or MHFI to come in and deliver programs in those settings.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Men\u2019s Health Week rolls around (starting Monday, June 15), Dave Smith says this year\u2019s theme, \u201cOne Step at a Time\u201d, is particularly relevant for him. He was recently diagnosed with coronary artery disease. It\u2019s a new battle but one he feels better prepared to take on since founding Be OK Garage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe friends I\u2019ve made through this journey with Be OK have helped immensely,\u201d he says. \u201cAs well as the support from my family, they\u2019re constantly checking up on me and making sure I\u2019m OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a mental health perspective, it\u2019s about being aware of how I\u2019m feeling, accepting the uncertainty, maintaining purpose in my work with Be OK Garage, seeking support professionally and from friends and focusing on what I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his health concerns, he is determined to help more people. \u201cI want Be OK Garage to be a household name, to be at every car event in the country and eventually in the UK and Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love for my two boys to remember their dad as someone who was happy, positive and doing good. I want to make the world a slightly better place than I found it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a selfless act by any measure. What I get from it is a sense of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
His two boys already have a lot to be proud of.<\/p>\n
Research shows that men experience a disproportionate burden of ill-health and die too young. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An indoor karting arena in the middle of a Dublin industrial estate is probably not the first place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[26054,38459,3769,103,61,60,351,410,411],"class_list":["post-495452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health-life","tag-health-mind","tag-health-my-story","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mens-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Men\u2019s Health Week starts on Monday, June 15 and ends on Father\u2019s Day, Sunday, June 21. It aims to raise awareness of preventable health problems among males of all ages and encourages them to adopt healthier lifestyle choices.
\n The theme for the island of Ireland this year is \u2018One Step at a Time\u2019. Men are being asked to set simple, realistic and practical tasks to improve their health and are encouraged to make progress, rather than being overwhelmed by aiming for perfection.
\n It\u2019s easy to do something to mark the week and improve the health of men and boys, and everyone can get involved (see the \u2018What Can I Do\u2019 paper<\/a>).
\n Start with the \u2018Action Man\u2019 Manual<\/a>\u00a0which offers ten top tips for men\u2019s health.
\n You can find out everything that you need to know at www.mhfi.org<\/a><\/p>\n