The Irish and their pubs - a dangerous liaison By Rebekka Edlund

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dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday December 6, 2006

By Rebekka Edlund, Cork, Ireland- "Vodka has the least calories. I know because my friend who's real skinny, she only drinks vodka and Diet Coke," says a 21-year-old female university student in Cork, southern Ireland, as she leafs through The Little Book of Women and Alcohol, a booklet produced by the Irish health department. In Ireland, alcohol can be said to be the drug of choice for many. Social occasions from weddings to funerals tend to revolve around the pub. As some experts demand a complete ban on the advertising of alcohol, drink awareness campaigns try to get people to drink less, but apparently with little success.

The health and safety of the population is at stake, but with alcohol playing such a central role in Irish culture, raising awareness of the dangers of excessive drinking is a difficult task.

Sitting on a couch in a student residence in Cork are three female university students aged 19, 20 and 21. The television shows one of Ireland's current drink driving awareness campaigns. "Know the one that's one too many" is the slogan.

"In those ads there is only one person who's drunk and everyone else is passing judgment. It's not like that when you are out at all," says the 19-year-old from county Kilkenny.

Michael Fitzgerald, 50, an elected councillor in county Tipperary for Ireland's second largest party, Fine Gael, recently admitted to regularly driving after drinking "three or four pints." His public confession caused an uproar and prompted his party to take steps to expel him.

The incident is particularly embarrassing for his party as it recently called for zero tolerance of drink driving. When even politicians publicly admit to drink driving, knowing "the one that's one too many" seems difficult indeed.

With an average of 33 people dying in road accidents every month, Ireland's road-death rate is about 50 per cent higher than the average in western Europe.

A 2004 report by the Irish Strategic Task Force on Alcohol estimates that alcohol is the cause of 40 per cent of road deaths and 30 per cent of road accidents.

According to a 2006 European Union report, people in Ireland spend a higher proportion of their income on alcohol than any other EU country. The average Irish household spends 1,675 euros (2,140 dollars) annually, three times as much as the next country, Denmark (531 euros).

Another 2006 EU report on women's health, found that Ireland has the highest percentage of female binge drinkers in the EU. Sixteen per cent of Irish women admitted to binge drinking at least once a week.

"Hang on a second - what are we defining as binge drinking?" asks "Chana," an Irish Health website user in a posted comment. "The usual mantra of 'more than 4 units' that is sanctimoniously trotted out every time I hear about binge drinking? That means that every woman who drinks two pints and a short in a night is binge drinking? If that is the case, their figures are, in my opinion, a farce."

According to the students, most girls they know drink a "shoulder" of vodka, as the 350 ml bottle is called, before they go out at night. It's cheaper to buy drink at the off-licence than in the pubs, so girls aim for a good level of inebriation before they even leave their house.

Braving the cold late autumn nights, they walk to the pubs and clubs dressed in short skirts and skimpy tops, many sipping drinks on the way.

However, the students interviewed by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa said they drink comparatively little compared to many of their peers - maybe six to seven bottles of beer once or twice a week. They also occasionally drink vodka, cider and wine.

Young men drink "way more," say the girls, "but they can handle it."

A study comparing six other European countries in 2003 suggests that binge drinking is the norm for many in Ireland. According to the study, 48 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women binge drink at least once week.

The statistics caused heated debate as many people feel they are used to unfairly criticise Irish culture. One Irish health website user asks, "At dinner yesterday evening, I had a pre-dinner sherry, two glasses of wine with dinner, followed by two after-dinner ports (five drinks in all). Does this make me a binge drinker?"

Most people feel happier when they've had a few drinks and tend to lose their inhibitions, but many also get rowdy, start fights or lose control.

"Often it's a case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," says a student recently arrived in Dublin from South Africa. "People have nice and well behaved personalities during the day and then at night they start drinking and you cannot believe your eyes."

Some problem drinkers fight on the streets, drink until they vomit or have unprotected sex with strangers. In the era of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases and in a country where abortion is illegal, drink driving is not the only threat to public health caused by excessive alcohol consumption.

"The demand for emergency contraception (the "Morning After" pill) has increased heavily over the last three years, with alcohol consumption being a huge contributory factor. We have also seen a dramatic increase in sexually-transmitted infections," Alison Begas, chief executive of the Well Woman Centre, is quoted as saying in the Women and Alcohol booklet.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency