This made me think about my relationship with alcohol.

username123

fits wrote: »

I would like to see St Patricks Day completely rethought to be honest. Its embarrassing at the moment.

Couldnt agree more. Des Bishop did a series of 4 shows talking about Irelands and alcohol and he showed some different ideas - in New York there was a big hall with tea and sandwiches and cake and a stage with Irish dancers, music etc and it was called Sober St Paddys Day - it was a family event, so there were adults and children there and people were having a chat and a bit of craic and enjoying the entertainment.

meeeeh

I actually don't get it why is such a big fuss around Christenings. We went for a meal, there was alcohol but nobody got drunk.

I'm coming from a country that has dreadful attitude to alcohol too. However my parents were almost never drunk. I think I saw my mother drunk once and dad would be drunk couple times per year. Yet alcohol was constantly in the house, me and my brother could have one unit (not glass) of wine with Sunday dinner since we were 15 or so. We still went off the rails in high school and university but with time our drinking became much more sensible. I love wine but I never drink to get drunk.

I don't agree with "the young ones" explanation. It's not the kids that are at fault, it's their parents who give bad example. Everyone can go a bit crazy in late teens, early twenties, but when you are still drowning half a bottle of wine to unwind at 35, then you have a problem. I was reading some Christmas Food thread on this forum and what struck me at the time, was how many people drink sparkling wine mixed with some soft drink at breakfast. Buy and decent wine and enjoy it with proper, not some mush that you have to mix with Fanta to wash down cornflakes.

I'm not saying that how much young people drink isn't a problem, I just think that it's actually irresponsible adults who are the main culprits.

kylith

Maybe we could do with less 'drink responsibly' ads and more 'this is what you look like when you're drunk' ones showing the vomiting, shíteing, vulnerability of getting totally legless.

Lia_lia

meeeeh wrote: »

I don't agree with "the young ones" explanation. It's not the kids that are at fault, it's their parents who give bad example.

If anything, seeing my parents drink a lot when I was younger turned me off alcohol!

miamee

kylith wrote: »

Maybe we could do with less 'drink responsibly' ads and more 'this is what you look like when you're drunk' ones showing the vomiting, shíteing, vulnerability of getting totally legless.

Very true. There is a twitter account called nightclub fails or something like that and the pics they put up are horrifying. And I *think* they just pick them up from publicly posted twitter or facebook images :eek:

username123

miamee wrote: »

Very true. There is a twitter account called nightclub fails or something like that and the pics they put up are horrifying. And I *think* they just pick them up from publicly posted twitter or facebook images :eek:

Theres been a few ad campaigns along these lines (not sure if they were Irish actually). Typically, the kind of online response I saw to one of these ads (where you saw cctv of a girl tumbling down a flight of internal stairs etc) was along the lines of (a) state of them, cant hold their drink or (b) looks like a great night out.

The cant hold their drink is a typical Irish attitude - the more you can get into you, the cooler you are.

the_syco

username123 wrote: »

The cant hold their drink is a typical Irish attitude - the more you can get into you, the cooler you are.

Actually, maybe an ad campaign should be made around the fact that "not everybody can hold their drink", with pictures of young people falling around, etc?

username123

the_syco wrote: »

Actually, maybe an ad campaign should be made around the fact that "not everybody can hold their drink", with pictures of young people falling around, etc?

It could end with "no one SHOULD try to hold their drink" with pictures of yellow alcoholics and destroyed livers.

Although I dont know if shock tactics have much of an impact these days - we are so bombarded with shock images of all sorts of things - we might be immune.

I've known my relationship with alcohol was dangerous and would most likely kill me, known it for years, but always reasoned it out as that I never seemed to be in such a bad state as the people I regularly saw falling down drunk in the pubs and streets. This is mostly, I believe, due to a highly built up tolerance from years of increasing my intake, plus I'm a mostly laid back chilled out kind of person, I'd seldom get loud and giggling and shouty. I think I manage often to appear more sober than I am.

As of last Monday, I decided to quit drinking. I can count on one hand over the last 14 years of drinking the situations I got into that were outright dangerous or left me frightened and sickened. But that's no great achievement - ONE should have been too many.

Having a friend who claims not to have a problem with drinking phone me three times in the space of 24 hours, drunk, singing Nirvana songs, totally helped my decision :pac:

Mozzeltoff

I am astonished by the way people "compliment" me on the way I used to drink or the amount I could hold...like I am supposed to be proud of it?

I was a very screwed up person and I hit the bottle hard. I hung around some people who were not doing me any favours. I was on Cymbalta and Xanax for my anxiety. I never really considered what they were doing to my body but I was pouring cheap spirits or cider down on top of it. I can't remember a good section of 2010/ start of 2011..that freaks the **** out of me!!

I am even surprised how I even have a shred of my liver left with my carry on...it scares me how bad I was and I am only thankful that I have slowed down A LOT and that I am not that person I anymore. I haven't completely given it up, I am working on it, but if I do go out for a drink I am usually out about 10 and home about 1. I really don't see the point of it anymore to be honest..

Rosy Posy

username123 wrote: »

Pretty much all Irish social events are centered around alcohol. How could this be changed? Maybe it is already changing for some social events - I was at a christening recently where most people just ate cake and had tea.

The Irish attitude that you can't have a group of people get together without alcohol is ridiculous. I recently organised a baby shower and had to fight to have it alcohol free- we had tea and cake and sandwiches in the end but everyone else baulked at the idea of not offering a glass of wine, even though the mother-to-be had to abstain. I think that its just ingrained in our idea of how a social event should pan out.

I've only recently learned my limits with alcohol. Since having kids I get out so irregularly that I want to be sure that I wring as much enjoyment from the evening as possible and there's nothing that can sour a night out quicker than too much alcohol, either by ending up in a state feeling ill or being out of control, or by losing the inhibitions too much and getting into an argument/long and involved conversation that seems terribly important but is actually drivel. I tend to stop drinking for an hour or so now if I feel like I'm getting too drunk and intersperse my drinks with water. Dancing is also great for spacing out the drinks. I wonder if its a sort of Clockwork Orange thing where if you're left alone you eventually get bored of it, although I know enough people of the same age and older who still enjoy getting rat ar$ed and making fools of themselves on a regular basis.

Da Shins Kelly

I have a couple of friends who don't drink at all and never have. I can't say I've ever noticed any lack of understanding towards them, not in our social circle anyway. They don't drink, that's fine. That's not to say it doesn't exist though.

I do think there is a bad attitude to alcohol in this country, and I think a lot of it stems from insecurities (people get drunk to build up confidence and such) and the fact that there seems to be such a lack of options of things to do that don't involve going to the pub or socializing with drink in some way. I think aggression when drunk is a big problem here too. I've seen plenty of drunk people around the streets in Spain, but I've never felt scared or intimidated by them in the way I have in Ireland from time to time.

Finally, I do think pub times should be changed too. When you have every pub closing at half 12 and then every late bar/nightclub closing at half 2, you just end up with this situation of people tearing into the drink, trying to get as much into them as possible before closing time, and then there's this out-pouring of extremely drunk people onto the streets at the same time. That's when you end up with fights and accidents. If the clubs and pubs staggered the times, I think the level of trouble that seems to go on could be reduced.

rainbowtrout

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

Finally, I do think pub times should be changed too. When you have every pub closing at half 12 and then every late bar/nightclub closing at half 2, you just end up with this situation of people tearing into the drink, trying to get as much into them as possible before closing time, and then there's this out-pouring of extremely drunk people onto the streets at the same time. That's when you end up with fights and accidents. If the clubs and pubs staggered the times, I think the level of trouble that seems to go on could be reduced.

In theory that would be great, but every pub/club would want to be the one that stayed open the longest so they could sell as much alcohol as possible. it would also probably create a situation where people would go 'Pub A is closing at 11.30, Pub B is not closing until 12' so when they leave A they would go to B to get another one in, and so on. People do that as it is, going to the pub where they know they serve late, or going to a disco bar to continue drinking when they have no intention of going there to dance.

We can do nanny state stuff all we like, and try and curb drinking by closing pubs earlier/extend opening hours but people have to take responsibility for themselves and it has to start with people learning to go out for a drink to socialise with friends and family and enjoy the company they are in and enjoy the drink for what it is rather than having a primary aim of getting locked out of their heads. We all know people and have probably been there ourselves at some point where we go 'I'm going to get sooooooooooo drunk tonight', with meeting friends and having fun/going dancing only being a means to do that.

Until we as a nation can view going to the pub as just another activity similar to going to meet someone for coffee, or going to the cinema etc, people will continue to have a bad relationship with alcohol.

Da Shins Kelly

rainbowtrout wrote: »

In theory that would be great, but every pub/club would want to be the one that stayed open the longest so they could sell as much alcohol as possible. it would also probably create a situation where people would go 'Pub A is closing at 11.30, Pub B is not closing until 12' so when they leave A they would go to B to get another one in, and so on. People do that as it is, going to the pub where they know they serve late, or going to a disco bar to continue drinking when they have no intention of going there to dance.

We can do nanny state stuff all we like, and try and curb drinking by closing pubs earlier/extend opening hours but people have to take responsibility for themselves and it has to start with people learning to go out for a drink to socialise with friends and family and enjoy the company they are in and enjoy the drink for what it is rather than having a primary aim of getting locked out of their heads. We all know people and have probably been there ourselves at some point where we go 'I'm going to get sooooooooooo drunk tonight', with meeting friends and having fun/going dancing only being a means to do that.

Until we as a nation can view going to the pub as just another activity similar to going to meet someone for coffee, or going to the cinema etc, people will continue to have a bad relationship with alcohol.

I don't think it'll solve the problem, but I think it might minimize the problems with regards to fighting in the streets and what have you. I found that in Spain where the closing times are 6 or 7 in the morning, I ended up going home myself around 4 or half 4 most nights.

CrabRevolution

A lot of the blame on awkward socialising seems to be directed at single sex schools on this and i'm more than a bit sceptical. Here in Meath for example i count around 5 or 6 single sex schools, and 15+ mixed.

Aswell as that off the top of my head most border schools with Meath numbers attending, e.g. Kilcock, Rochfortbridge are mixed.

Just about all the schools have been mixed for at the least the last 10 years so the 'effects' of mixed schooling should be seen. By those numbers though the vast majority of Meath people beneath 30 have gone to mixed schools. We still seem to have the same awkwardness everyone blames on single sex schools though.

Generally with every boys school there is a twin girls school, and anyone who thinks the lads and girls dont mix before/after school and during lunch is just deluded.

Or are we Meath people just naturally poor with women and in need of drink around the opposite sex?

Precious flower

I'm 20 but I rarely ever drink or go out out and even if I do, I only get a little tipsy as I'm not comfortablele with going over that line (personal stuff that happened in the past). Thankfully most of my friends are grand that and it has never been as issue with them. However, I've one friend who, whether she does it without realising how it has an effect on me or not, will constantly make a big deal of whether I'm drinking or not infront of other people. We went out one night and I ordered a cocktail and she turned to me and said 'Oh, you're going to drink with me, that's great!' but it felt like, yeah I like to drink sometimes whatever. Another time we went out with her family for dinner and her mother asked if I wanted wine, I said no thanks I was grand (just didn't feel like having anything alcoholic) and my friend comes out with 'Oh mam you know she doesn't drink', really loudly in front of everyone. I felt embarrassed and annoyed as I do drink occasionally just not all the time. I know it might sound like me overreacting but I don't want her to be announcing or drawing everyone's attention to the fact I don't drink a lot. I make no big deal of it, I don't even mention it and I don't hound after people who drink loads so why does she feel the need to bring attention to it? And that wasn't the only time she announced my drinking habits in front of other people. I was at a party of hers recently and I was having a drink and she took it by accident and then came back after a while looking for her own and I said it was mine she said, 'Oh yeah, I was thinking this isn't alcohol' just because I had diluted my drink to pace myself as I didn't want to be going home to my mother drunk. She's the only one who has ever made a deal out of my moderate drinking, and it irks me. I hope it doesn't sound silly but it does effect me a little.

Wompa1

I'm living in America at the moment. The drink driving culture here disgusts me and I'm glad Ireland tackled that and it gives hope that Ireland can now try to change attitudes towards drinking overall. Americans drink a lot less and don't seem to get overly drunk very often. But enough of the comparisons because whenever I do that, people think I'm putting down Ireland.

I drank a couple of times last year and so far only once this year. When I do drink, I drink a lot. Drinking becomes an ordeal and I don't really enjoy it. My mother is a c*nt with drink on her and always has been. My dad drinks a lot and passes out a lot and always has. So I never saw the glamour in it. In fact, I was 19 before I ever touched a drink.

Going to college and not drinking in Ireland is awful. Going to a pub and not drinking is also awful. Any night I didn't drink my friends would make the focus of the night about trying to get me to drink. I hated it. When I was young, I worked in a shop in a small village which sold the infamous Buckfast. People from my class who I knew were all underage would come in on Friday nights to buy it and I would refuse to sell it. Them already being drunk from Cider or just being a-holes would lead to me getting F'd out of it, usually in front of others. I also got sh!t on in school for it. I'm not sure I would raise kids in Ireland, there's only so much a parent can do, you can't shield them from virtually 3 out of every 5 people in the place...