Mad Outta Me Head: Addiction and Underworld from Ireland to Colombia

Mad Outta Me Head follows the life of Christopher Kavanagh from Dublin, Ireland to Bogotá, Colombia. Along the way is an unbelievable story of addiction and underworld.

"The Mick" was the nickname given to Christopher Kavanagh when his stories first appeared on the Expat Chronicles blog. A case could be made that sexual abuse by Catholic priests or his IRA family connections contributed to his criminal path. But he would admit it all came down to his love of drugs and alcohol -- getting "mad outta his head."

Christopher did time in Smiley's industrial school (the equivalent to juvenile detention in the United States), Mountjoy Prison (AKA 'The Joy'), Loughan House, and Arbour Hill. He befriended Dublin's leading criminal figures, including some of the Dunne family and "King Scum" Tony Felloni, who were instrumental in bringing heroin into 1970s Dublin.

Christopher's criminal activities grew to be a full-time job when he became addicted to heroin. He and his girlfriend traveled to Bogota with the intention of bringing four kilos of cocaine back to Ireland. They were caught by Colombian police at El Dorado airport. Christopher served three years in Colombia's largest prison, La Modelo, where he befriended M-19 guerrilla insurgents, the infamous Medellin Cartel assassins 'Los Priscos', and many more from the rank-and-file of Colombia's underworld -- mafiosos, thieves, conmen, killers, and more.

Christopher was released in 1989 and traded his previous heroin addiction for debilitating alcoholism on the streets of Bogota at a time when TIME Magazine called it the world's worst city, the capital of the world's most dangerous country. Prison rape, riots, murder, torture, bank robberies, scams, hardcore partying, addiction, hedonism, and a life of crime. It's Basketball Diaries meets Marching Powder in Dublin, Ireland and Bogota, Colombia.