Alcohol in Irish society.

Archeron

I've just been reading some threads in the AH section, and the one about quality of life in Ireland caught my eye for the fact that so many people seem to take issue with alcohol use/abuse in this country and the effects it is having on the country as a whole. How do you feel on this issue?

I myself think that alcohol has a strangle hold on the majority of Irish people, and I find it saddening how much social life revolves around it.
In my childhood, my dad had some problems with drink that led me to always have some reticence towards drinking. In my late teens, early twenties this went out the window and I drank many times til I passed out. I had a couple of scary episodes that made me think that maybe I wasnt on a good path.
Over the past couple of years (now in my late 20's) my attitudes towards alcohol has completely changed. I no longer go to pubs as the majority are IMO kips. I do still drink, but with a lot more moderation and more now for the taste of the variety of drinks, as opposed to just chugging 15 pints of bud for the sake of being buckled. I no longer have an interest in getting stupid drunk, but prefer to have a few quiet beers, get talkative and enjoy my time, while still remember the night the next morning and not being sick as hell.

I have spoken with friends about this, and they tell me that this is standard for people to feel this way when they approach their late 20's, and its just another sign of getting old. I dont know if I agree with this though, as I know people in their 40's 50's and 60's who do actually get drunk everyday and consider alcohol to be "all they have"

I find that without alcohol, there are very few social outlets for younger people, and it seems to be ingrained in us that drinking lots is just simply something that Irish people do. Even when I was 16 or 17, it was just the done thing to get a bag of cans and head for the nearest field to get locked.

Has alcohol adversely affected your life in any way? Would you put our fondness for the drink down to part of our national identity? When I see people socialize in other European countries, it makes me ashamed when I think of what the equivent time/people in, for example, Dublins O Connell street would be like with the vomit, the potential for violence, and all the other crap I now associate with drinking waaaay too much.

Would you consider drink to be a great evil in Ireland, or do you think,sure its only a few scoops and its part of who we are?

DOLEMAN

I agree completely. Gave up drink 2 weeks ago (!!) and hope to stay off it forever.

There is something very sad about working hard all week and then spending a lot of money on the weekend just to get locked. Waste of money, very bad for your health, and slightly embarrassing really.

I don't know why it is so tolerated - encouraged even - in this country.

Sure, the best nights of my life have involved alcohol, but that still doesn't make getting locked week after week the right thing to do...

For me when I drink I have a tendency to gamble, be hungover the next day, lose motivation for a few days and get pissed off about how "rip off" the pubs are. I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm 28. I don't believe it has anything to do with getting old. I think it's just a case of enough is enough!!

Drinking is fun though...

honru

After going to Belgium last year my attitude to drinking completely changed. Woah, these are actually nice tasting beers?!

I drink in moderation nowadays. Much better to get three fine beers than getting ten cans of piss to guzzle down.

OK, the odd special occasion I like to be in the bantering/drunken mood but... every weekend? Do I really need to be bolloxed to have fun?

I'm 19 btw.

coffee_cake

After reading some of the threads in AH where people seemed to think it was normal to have 10+ pints in a night at least once a week, I was shocked.
I know drinking can be a problem but I didn't think it was quite that bad.
If you're going out to drink yourself stupid... why on earth do you bother going out? At some point fairly early in the evening you're not exactly going to be able to chat to your friends anymore. You'd be best off staying at home chugging from a bottle, and a whole lot less disruptive to the more sober people.
And you can't tell me drinking yourself unconscious is that much fun.
When I was 15-16 I tried drinking a lot. Then I got sick of it and gave up drink for a year. Then I went back on but almost never got drunk, and now I've given up entirely.
I enjoy going out to pubs and clubs (though preferably quiet pubs) and sitting around chatting with my friends.
I do think there should be other social activities/places where you can sit around and chat or whatever without it involving alcohol. And it's more than possible to have fun going out while drinking water.

LovelyHurling

Yes, alcohol is a major feature of Irish life and is the major feature of Irish socialising (hey we cant dance gotta have something!)

I drank a lot during college. A lot. The average night out consisted of a bottle of wine at the house and then 3-4 pints and maybe shots in the pub. That was at least once a week, but very rarely more than twice and excluded exam periods and holidays (when I let my liver recover:D ). All of my mates were the same. The point Im making is that now that Ive qualified, and finished college I have no excuse to do that any more and its out of my system. Its just something that young people have to go through (if they are that way inclined), and tbh I think its a bit hyped up in the media. Ive got a good job now, finally able to afford to shop outside of Tescos, and havent been drunk since about New Years! I have responsibilties now and I'm in good health. But this time last year some people would probably have said "OMG Alcohol Problem"

What really annoys me is when people refer to 'getting stupid drunk' and 'there is something very sad about it'. Lighten up! Alcohol is a part of life if you dont want to get drunk, dont.

McGinty

I would concur that for enjoyment, the use of alcohol is a strong one in Ireland, and I one of the guilty participants to a degree, I don't like getting pissed so that I can't remember my name or I become incoherent, but I do love nice wine, and often enjoy a bottle. However I feel that the social life is geared around the pub, and nowadays pubs /clubs are designed in such a way as to encourage excessive drinking, there are fewer seats in pubs, the music is too loud for conversation, and the dance floor area have become smaller to discourage too much dancing, hence more time for drinking. I am convinced these pubs/clubs have been designed for maximum drinking, yes I'm somewhat older (nearly 35) but I remember when dancefloors were bigger, there were more seats to sit down (all of these slow down drinking) and I used to enjoy a night out more so, nowadays people just get pissed in pubs, there is a scary culture of get absolutely blotto, also there are few alternatives to going to the pub, or maybe I haven't found them. What I have found strange is that in European cities you can buy alcohol just about anywhere, and yet they don't drink in the same way we do, they have a beer/wine for lunch and maybe one or two later in the evening.

After my second year in college, after a regular check-up, I found that I had some liver damage from drinking. Nothing serious, and yet it shocked me to the core. Since then I drink in moderation. I do get drunk a few times a year, but never to the point of black-outs which I used to experience. Probably worth mentioning I'm 29 now, and while I like to drink, I do get sick of the taste of alcohol quite quickly these days.

Nowadays I'm more exasperated by the drinking culture than anything else. Being sober surrounded by drunk people gets annoying very fast. :rolleyes: