Stopped from buying alco chocs...

Kersh

Late as ever buying an easter egg/chocs for the gf I went out to Liffey Valley yesterday. Picked out a crummy walnut whip egg and some cherry liquer choco;ates. When i got to the checkout the guy behind the counter said "sorry, cant sell these today there is alcohol in them", so I replied "its ok, im not religious, you can go ahead and check them out for me". He looked blankly at me, then said "sorry, store policy not to sell them today". I said some words along the lines of it being a bit unfair, he just laughed it off... just wondering did anyone else come across this at all. It was M&S... Dunnes had no eggs left.... so 'go to another shop' replies arent much good, im just wondering about this. It didnt bother me at all, more surprised me - I thought this country was moving on a little bit....

rugbug86

maybe go in today and try again?

the_syco

I concur. Go in today, as they'll be still there, since no-one else could buy them yesterday.

_Kaiser_

I don't think that's the OP's point. I think he's trying to highlight that this ridiculously outdated ban on alcohol on "Good Friday" is unworkable (I mean, not being able to buy choclates now?) and needs to go at this stage.

The sooner certain elements of this society either join the rest of us in the 21st century, or lose the influence they seem to still hold over the majority (I'm talking the Catholic Church and Irish language lobbyists), the better for all of us.

I'm not suggesting Religion and Irish should be banned, just that it should be removed from anything that lists them as a legal/educational requirement.
Let the onus be on the parents to raise and teach their children morality and their "native" language, rather than (as evidenced by the growing rise in antisocial behaviour) relying on others to do it for them - or to quote Homer (Simpson ), the "can't someone else do it?" attitude.

Crucifix

That's mad. I'm suprised the guy even noticed when he was checking stuff through.

Right_Side

Kersh wrote:

I thought this country was moving on a little bit....

I agree completely.

On a side-note, I saw four seperate groups of old people walking in the direction of the local church with massive crosses yesterday. It was so weird. Like a clut or something. Imagine you didn't know yesterday was Good Friday you would be completely unnerved!

Pigman II

When I first read that post I thought the teller was winding the OP up for a laugh or something. tbh I still can't quite believe it.

If it was store policy not to sell them yesterday then why have them on the shelves?

Personally I don't really care one way or another about the alco-ban & pubs closing on Good Friday but illogical brainless stuff like this just annoys the crap out of me.

Cake Fiend

Surely genuine, practicing catholics are now in the minority in this country?

Heathen

no way!! thats pure sad!! youd have to eat a hell of a lot of chocolate to get even remotely tipsy.. and its obvious you were buying them for easter... thats a sham.. lol.. we are so backwards in this country

Guy:Incognito

It's all good, they're all 70+ so will be dead in 20 years tops. Then we can Where did the no alcohol on being sold on good friday start? Italy is as much if not more of a catholic country than here and they dont do it.

Einstein

I also agree, but at the same time, regardless of yours or my belief, the country as a whole is a catholic community, and thats how the country will always respond to the likes of good friday etc.

If we lived in a buddhist or muslim society, and a catholic community were in the minority, the country's religious beliefs would be upheld before ours.

Guy:Incognito

Divers wrote:

I also agree, but at the same time, regardless of yours or my belief, the country as a whole is a catholic community, and thats how the country will always respond to the likes of good friday etc..

You probably posted at the same time as me. Italy dont shut pubs and not serve alcohol, it'sa free choice.

lodgepole

Macker Eire wrote:

youd have to eat a hell of a lot of chocolate to get even remotely tipsy...

There is no ban on drunkeness, it is a ban on the sale of alcohol. It would have been illegal for the shopkeeper to sell the chocolates.

Fup it, it's only a day. It's not the only Friday I don't go for a pint and if I want a drink I have plenty at home. At this point, like Christmas, Easter is more cultural than religious.

Right_Side

Lodgepole wrote:

Fup it, it's only a day. It's not the only Friday I don't go for a pint and if I want a drink I have plenty at home. At this point, like Christmas, Easter is more cultural than religious.

That's not the point. One should be free to go for a drink if one wishes to.

_Kaiser_

Lodgepole wrote:

There is no ban on drunkeness, it is a ban on the sale of alcohol. It would have been illegal for the shopkeeper to sell the chocolates.

Fup it, it's only a day. It's not the only Friday I don't go for a pint and if I want a drink I have plenty at home. At this point, like Christmas, Easter is more cultural than religious.

Maybe so, and like yourself I don't HAVE to have a drink on Fridays (in fact, since I bought a car last year I don't drink that much at all these days).

The point is though that if someone wants to buy a few cans/bottles (or chocolates in this case), they should be free to, and the only reason they can't is because of pandering to a institution that IMO still holds far too much influence in this county.. as someone else posted, even in Italy - the home of the Catholic Church - they don't do this.

Cake Fiend

Stekelly wrote:

taly dont shut pubs and not serve alcohol, it'sa free choice.

As it should be, tbh. If the whole not drinking thing is a matter of faith, then surely it's an excercise in pointlessness to force it upon people

Making it illegal to buy alcohol because of religious expectations is as moronic as legally forcing people to give something up for lent would be.

In response to the usual tirade that gets dragged up every year when someone complains about this law, I'm not hugely bothered by the fact that I couldn't get alcohol last night - I'm bothered by the fact that my legal right to do so was removed, completely pointlessly.

CiaranC

Presumably M&S werent selling any cosmetics either yesterday? All perfume etc contains trace amounts of alcohol too. I didnt notice Boots closing down for the day either.

Crucifix

CiaranC wrote:

Presumably M&S werent selling any cosmetics either yesterday? All perfume etc contains trace amounts of alcohol too. I didnt notice Boots closing down for the day either.

Heh heh, that just conjures images of rampant alcoholics who forgot to stock up on thursday eating face cream and swigging listerine.

lodgepole

Right_Side wrote:

That's not the point. One should be free to go for a drink if one wishes to.

Which point wasn't the point? Why should one be free to go for a drink? Why is it a big deal that alcohol isn't sold on two days of the year?

Kaiser2000 described the law as "unworkable", but I don't see how that's the case. If there were no eggs left in the store then it's really the OP's own fault for leaving it so late. It's not the end of the world, and it's not so serious as to warrant a change in a law that has existed here for a long time and has never caused any trouble.

lostexpectation

I guess in some consumerist society way he was trying to observe a catholic tradition by buying the chocolate liquers wasn't he?

lodgepole

Sico wrote:

I'm bothered by the fact that my legal right to do so was removed

You never had a legal right to buy alcohol on Good Friday.

Cake Fiend

Lodgepole wrote:

You never had a legal right to buy alcohol on Good Friday.

Replace 'removed' with 'denied' then, if you're going to keep that pole lodged up your ass. The point is, my rights should not be curtailed because of the fanciful beliefs of a cult.

Right_Side

Lodgepole wrote:

Which point wasn't the point?

The whole...'its only one day' point.

Why should one be free to go for a drink?

Because we don't live in a dictatorship.

Why is it a big deal that alcohol isn't sold on two days of the year?

It infringes on a person's right to do as they wish without the state interfering unnecessarily.

lodgepole

Sico wrote:

Replace 'removed' with 'denied' then, if you're going to keep that stick up your ass.

The stick up my ass is there for a reason. You never had the legal right to buy alcohol on Good Friday or Christmas because Irish society has decided that should be the case. The number of genuine practicing Catholics in the country is now tiny, and the influence of the Church all but gone. So why is the law still in place? Because it always has been, and it does no harm, beyond slightly inconveniencing some people who forgot to buy their eggs on time.

On a lot of topics i'm all about retaining basic rights and that one person's moral code shouldn't dictate another persons (outside of a state's laws obviously) but in this case I see no actual harm in the restricting of our rights on these particular days.

Right_Side

Lodgepole wrote:

The number of genuine practicing Catholics in the country is now tiny, and the influence of the Church all but gone. So why is the law still in place? Because it always has been, and it does no harm, beyond slightly inconveniencing some people who forgot to buy their eggs on time.

So we shouldn't change laws when society changes? Just because something has always been some way we should keep it?

So, for example, just because homosexuality was always illegal it shouldn't have been changed?

lodgepole

Right_Side wrote:

The whole...'its only one day' point.

Thanks, I wasn't sure whether you meant that or the culture/religion thing.

Because we don't live in a dictatorship.

A law that causes inconvenience doesn't equal a dictatorship. Your wording is far too strong.

It infringes on a person's right to do as they wish without the state interfering unnecessarily.

I think I covered that in my other post.

lostexpectation

Lodgepole wrote:

The number of genuine practicing Catholics in the country is now tiny, and the influence of the Church all but gone.

this isn't true

whiskeyman

Lodgepole wrote:

it is a ban on the sale of alcohol. It would have been illegal for the shopkeeper to sell the chocolates.

Is there anywhere in law what constitutes what exactly is banned on Good Friday?

Since many chocolate liqueurs only contain around 2-5% of the drink itself, the alcohol content is minimal, and the chocolate would be considered the main product, and derivative of enjoyment. ( I cant remember the last time I was drunk eating them....).

There's more alcohol in a bottle of mouthwash (Listerine is around 28% alcohol I think).... anyone stopped from buying that yesterday?

lodgepole

Right_Side wrote:

So we shouldn't change laws when society changes? Just because something has always been some way we should keep it?

Not at all. I don't believe that Irish society has decided that alcohol should be put on sale on Christmas Day or Good Friday. Obviously i'm the minority in this thread but am I on a country wide level? I haven't seen any studies in the papers regarding it but I suspect you'd hear more about it if there was uproar over the issue.

lodgepole

lostexpectation wrote:

this isn't true

Which, the number of Catholics or the influence of the Church? Or both?

boneless

Easy solution for gettin' your own back... report the shop for having it's alcohol section open (by default) on a Good Friday

lodgepole

boneless wrote:

Easy solution for gettin' your own back... report the shop for having it's alcohol section open (by default) on a Good Friday

Any shops I was in just had signs up. I don't know that it's illegal to have alcoholic products on the shelves, just to sell them.

robinph

The chocolates surely don't come under the general licensing laws as I'm sure you would be able to buy them at any hour of the day in one of the 24hr supermarkets. It's just the guy on the checkout getting a bit carried away once he saw that they contained trace amounts of alcohol.

Lump

Legally the shop was in the wrong, all products containing Alcohol should be removed from the shop floor, or covered up, in order to prevent people purchasing.....


John

whiskeyman

Lump wrote:

Legally the shop was in the wrong, all products containing Alcohol should be removed from the shop floor, or covered up, in order to prevent people purchasing.....


John

I dont think so... see my point above on mouthwash.
"Intoxicating liquor" is the term used in the Statue Book... I somehow fail to see how chocolates containing less than 6% of this substance can fail under the category.
Would brandy cakes, red wine sauces fall under same?
The pasta sauce I buy (Ragu Red Wine & Herbs) has 10% red wine...

Surely all that falls under the category are those products a liquor licence is required for.

Some info re liquor chocs in the law:

Irish Statue Book wrote:

27.—(1) Nothing in the Licensing Acts (other than this section) or in any enactment requiring the authority of an excise licence for the sale or supply of intoxicating liquor shall have effect in relation to intoxicating liquor that is in confectionery if the confectionery—

( a ) does not contain intoxicating liquor in a proportion greater than one-fiftieth of a gallon of liquor (computed as proof spirit) per pound of the confectionery, and
( b ) either consists of separate pieces each of which weighs not more-than one and one-half ounces or is designed to be broken into such pieces for the purposes of consumption.
(2) Intoxicating liquor in confectionery shall not be sold to a person who is under the age of sixteen years.

(3) A person who knowingly contravenes subsection (2) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

alleepally

I read the first couple of posts and could see this was headed down the route of "don't inflict religion on me" type of responses.

Well you know what. There's another culture and creed in this country that I don't subscribe to and it's rammed down my throat all the time. Radio, tv, newspapers, billboards - everywhere.

Yeah, it's alcohol. Talk to the a&e workers who have to deal with the consequences of our drinking culture, talk to the gardai as well. Talk to the social workers & counsellors. Look at the courts - every week they are full of drink related cases.

It's bugs me to high heaven when I read the usual Good Friday threads every year and people talking about how we should we modernise and move forward with a changing society.

This doesn't wash with me. There's a huge fcuking elephant in the room and no one decides to focus on it.

Someone said : "It infringes on a person's right to do as they wish without the state interfering unnecessarily."

What a load of old toss. It infringes on my rights as a citizen to be able to walk through Dublin city without having to scurry past drunken louts and pools of vomit. It infringes on my rights that my tax money is used to pump the stomachs of thousands of drunks at the weekend, when some old person who has worked their lifetime languishes on a trolly and gets no attention while the bother boys and girls who were out on the lash have to be restrained and taken care of first.

cooperguy

The guy at the till was just a little nutty the restriction on sale of alcohol applies to beer, cider etc. not food containing small amounts of alcohol

Kersh

hmmm, I dont drink,. and not many members of our family do tbh, its just that I thought it a bit 'extreme' to deny the sale of alco-chocs, its a bit , well, fanatical, isnt it.... I couldn give a sh1t about any religion... and its not like they are full of alcohol. The fact that they were alcoholic never even crossed my mind til i got to the checkout. Then I had a laugh, but I just thought i would post the experience on here, to see what you guys thought.

Alkers

Crucifix wrote:

That's mad. I'm suprised the guy even noticed when he was checking stuff through.

It comes up on the till when you scan them through that they're alcoholic and to ask for ID if the person doesn't look 16 or over:D

Dizzyblabla

so what's the story with Hotels? They are allowed to serve, no? cause I know I was drinking in a hotel until about 2am or 3am on Holy Thursday night (which was technically Good Friday) and the people I was with didn't leave the bar until about 4am!

lostexpectation

really so how many different 'foods' contain alcohol?
do you have to ID check for christmas brandy pudding?

the guy on the checkout is a prize idiot!


I get where you're coming from alleppally but religion isn't the answer to our alcohol problem.

The Sweeper

Just sounds like the guy on the checkout had a jobsworth moment to be honest.

Banning the sale of something isn't the solution to a problem of overuse and abuse. Ireland's alcohol problems are cultural the pub is virtually the only place people go for recreation. If you don't drink people around you want to know precisely why it is you're not drinking.

Then, stopping the sale of alcohol one day a year doesn't help. I think it's actually counterproductive - the queues at the off license for the days running up to Good Friday are ridiculous. "Oh no! We cannot drink for a day!! STOCK UP FOR GOD'S SAKE!!"

blu_sonic

I was at the Morrissey gig on thursday in Kerry, The hotel bar was open for residents, the train home was serving alcohol too.

I stocked up the day before.

I'm not a catholic, why should someone elss religious beliefs be inflicted upon me?

regardless i was very drunk yesterday

Dizzyblabla

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

"Oh no! We cannot drink for a day!! STOCK UP FOR GOD'S SAKE!!"

ha ha ha!! it's like an oxymoron!

whiskeyman

Dizzyblabla wrote:

ha ha ha!! it's like an oxymoron!

Is that someone who pisses on your tent at a music festival?











don't worry, I'll shut the door.......

Dizzyblabla

blu_sonic wrote:

I was at the Morrissey gig on thursday in Kerry, The hotel bar was open for residents, the train home was serving alcohol too.

I stocked up the day before.

I'm not a catholic, why should someone elss religious beliefs be inflicted upon me?

regardless i was very drunk yesterday

oh no? you had to get the train home? it was a great concert though, wasn't it?!!! I was too hungover to get drunk yesterday, although I may have been still drunk when I got up/checked out!

Dizzyblabla

whiskeyman wrote:

Is that someone who pisses on your tent at a music festival?

sure it is... if you want it to be!

blu_sonic

yeah i got the train up to Dublin, Im seeing him tomorrow too, but the train had drink being served!

do you need ID for alcho sweets?

whiskeyman

blu_sonic wrote:

do you need ID for alcho sweets?

yes - see my earlier post.
Age is 16, and it's from the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962.
The fine is around €63 (50 old quid).

projectmayhem

i'm almost sure i've seen stores that don't sell alcohol (i.e. don't have a license to do so) selling alcohol sweets... it's not like you can get drunk off them

blu_sonic

well i suppose then it is alcohol and under our primative laws should be enfored.

what about perfume and mouthwash?