Ireland’s drinking laws
This is an area I tend to stay away from (complaining about the government etc) because in general I don’t know enough to make a good argument, but this is something that has been bugging me lately.
Ireland is known worldwide for being a nation of heavy drinkers. Sure I’ve just turned 18, and I’m well on my way to alcoholism. There’s a lot of problems with drink in this country, and while there are many positives to alcohol, it can really do some terrible things.
Drinking laws in Ireland don’t help the situation in my opinion. This week a law was introduced stating all off-licences had to stop selling drink by 10pm, every night. I’ll give my views on this, and feel free to entirely disagree.
This won’t make a massive difference, but still, I have to go buy my drink earlier now. Irish people (particularly young folk) seem to have this natural impulse to drink as much as possible for as long as possible. If I buy my drink earlier, I’ll just buy more than usual and start drinking earlier. As will most people. This means people are drinking earlier and drinking more. Not good.
That natural impulse is also important with another aspect of Irish drinking laws. In any club or pub, when you hear they’re about to stop serving, what happens? Everyone rushes to the bar, and will possibly buy two or more drinks and down them before having to leave. Solely to get as drunk as possible before having to leave. Everyone gets rushed out at the same time, freshly boozed up, and the fresh air hits us all together and the frenzied scavenge for a taxi/bus/burger begins. This is how fights and trouble starts. If you’re dumping everyone out at the same time, what can we expect?
I’ve heard about other European countries that have places open all night, people go in and pace themselves, and leave when they start getting a bit tired. No mad rush to get completely langered as quickly as possible and get kicked out/fall asleep and not remember anything the next day.
The attempts at being strict on alcohol in the home just give it a sort of taboo for young people. Kids reach 14/15 (they’re getting younger these days, I know) and wanna try alcohol, wanna see what it’s like to be drunk. The forbidden fruit. They gang outside the shop and find a suitable adult to “gerrus some drink mistah’ “. And they sneak off and get pissed off some 2 litre Tesco cider, don’t know about drink, can’t handle it, god knows what.Then tell everyone in school how great it is.
My parents would often offer me a glass of wine with dinner or a taste of beer when I was younger, no big deal. The benefit of this was that whenever I sipped alcohol as a child, it tasted ungodly, and this put me off for a while. There was never that whole forbidden fruit attraction to drink for me when I was younger. The first time I drank properly (I think I was sixteen), I just told my parents I was going to have a few drinks, but I’ll be sensible.
“Right so, just don’t make an eejit outta yourself”. I’ll be grand, don’t be worrying. “Alright, off with ya.” Eh, d’ya have a loan of twenty quid?
A friend of mine had the same sort of attitude to drink in the house when growing up, and it seems to have served him well.
There’s often talk about raising the legal drinking age to 21. Please don’t. Imagine the massive numbers of 18-20 year olds that wouldn’t be allowed into clubs and pubs. Would they (I) stop drinking? Not a chance. Crazy house parties please. And if not available, there’s a local field isn’t there? Raising the legal age would be a catastrophe.
The local night club in my area is known as a bit of a shit hole, and we’ve often laughed about how it turns shit as soon as you actually turn 18 and can get in on your own ID. The feeling of getting in somewhere you’re not supposed to made the place great.
Apparently the new law also has a bit about giving guards permission to take drink off underage people. Couldn’t they always do this? If not, I’d like to make a complaint and request all my confiscated cans from my past be returned to me immediately.
Is it true that in Germany the legal age is sixteen and people are allowed to drink in public? If so, how’s that working out for them? I’m not saying this would be good for Ireland, as we’d probably fuck it all up and abuse those rights completely, but it’s certainly interesting.
Apparently the price of drinks here (well over €5 a pint in some places - absolutely ridiculous) is something to do with taxes or a government attempt to discourage people from drinking. My hole. Perhaps lower the prices of non-alcoholic drinks? Let’s say I’m in a pub with friends, and I’m not in much of a mood for getting too pissed. I have the choice of a pint of beer, €5+, a pint of non-alcoholic beer €5+ (I think) or a pint of some soft drink, €5+. That’s a no brainer for me. If I’m going to spend a fiver on a beverage I might as well get a bitta’ buzz off it. If those non alcoholic drinks were significantly cheaper than the ordinary beer, then I’ll think about it. I don’t know how much of this is down to government, or how much is at the pub’s discretion, but surely something could be done there if the government really wanted to reduce alcohol intake?
Some things don’t make sense to me. Why is Guinness cheaper than other beers in pubs, but more expensive than others in can form? (There’ll probably be a very logical answer for this and oh, how foolish I’ll feel when someone tells me!).
Feel free to give your own opinions/information on all this, as I really don’t know all that much fact or reasoning behind some of the stuff mentioned here, and I have no qualms about admitting that.
Fuck this, it’s half two in the afternoon - I need a drink.
Popularity: 10% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
August 1st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I agree that the new opening times will just encourage earlier drinking, it’s not going to discourage anyone. If the government really want to reduce the amount of under-age drinkers than they will have to come up with a better solution than closing off-licences at 10.
As for putting the age limit up to 21 that would jsut be ridiculous, like I wouldn’t call myself a heavy drinker so why should I be punished and have to wait like another 4 years to be able to legally drink :O UNFAIR!
As for the price of alcohal, its terrible it makes me want to have another just to get over the price of it!
Interesting post by the way (sorry for the long comment)
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
No matter what law is changed there’s going to be quite a long wait before you’ll see the effects.
I don’t think there’ll be any true fallout from the smoking ban until there’s a generation of kids who have grown up without ever knowing it was legal to smoke in pubs.
It may take a similar amount of time to change behaviour with drinking.
I’d prefer to see a wide range of opening hours so that I’m not turfed out at the same time as the other 1000 people who drank straight vodka just to get a drink in before closing time.
We should all be ashamed of ourselves or our friends when they get stocious drunk but I’m as guilty as anyone for sitting around telling “one time I was sooo drunk …” stories.
@Mark - the guinness can has a widget inside to create the creamy head, which is probably more expensive.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Ciara : It’s really a no-win situation isn’t it?!
Scoby : You’re right that it’ll be a long time before see see change. I know what you mean about those stories, I think we’re nearly all guilty of that. And I didn’t think of the widget thing, kudos to you sir.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 am
Mark, when I was young, gardai never took my drink, they just forced me to spill it out.
If I was you I would take them to court because they stole your property
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Gnome : Perhaps that’s something I should consider alright, I can imagine all those gardai chillin’ in the back of their van, knocking back the beer they stole off me.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Like most governments they think they can do and get away with anything they like when in reality they are OUR servants and us individually and united are stronger and powerful than them and the law. THey can make anything the law but it doesnt mean its constitutionally or right. Just a little rant before i get started lol
Im not a big fan of big government (not a fan of politics either) my political leanings are love, peace and truth.
I think what they should do is lighten, if not abolish, the laws around drinking. We were born as free people and free people we should be and we should not be a product in their stock market of corruption. In France, they have a low drinking age, 16 i think, and younger for wine. Teens drink at a young age and they can do it safely in a pub or a club or under the guidance of their parents. Most teens (and people) are rebellious when they’re told they cant do something. When i was young i use to think it was cool to knacker drink because it was “bad” and “illegal” but in the likes of France kids are like meh because they usually have a glass of wine a day at dinner time and dont have that “we’re mad” factor.
Pubs and clubs should be allowed to open all night so that people will leave at different times and prevent fights etc.
Another thing is governments arent tackling the roots of problems… they operate under the PROBLEM REACTION SOLUTION technique… they wont get to why people are beating each other up they just make a reaction to it and bring in the solution such as the likes of CCTV, big brother moving increasingly into our lives taking our liberties.
Yeah its crazy the prices of alcohol now but its not because prices are rising (eh im crazy, right?) No! the truth is the VALUE of our EURO currency is going DOWN. Inflation means debt and loss of value in currency (dictionary). WHy is this happening? Because the bankers (rothschilds, rockefellers, and the morgans, and other families), same people who want to bring a one world government (new world order) have stopped using the Gold/Silver Standard - the money is backed by nothing meaning that they can create money and then CHARGE INTEREST TO YOU! so they are profiting off poor people like you and me! they are printing money out of thin air, theres no limit for them so there is too much money in circulation - too much money chasing too few goods causing the value to decrease, and the prices to rise. An ounce of gold could get you the same much back in the Roman empire than it would now because it never looses its value. it costs labour to take that raw material out of the ground. our government loans money off the EU central bank. our country is in debt and once we’re in debt the bankers have a country by the balls basically. ireland also has the highest household debt in the world, according to the CIA factbook.
Most likely these laws arent actually coming from our own government as the EU, a group of unelectable people, makes 80% of our laws!
alcohol kills so many people a year, governments make billions out of it, yet something like weed (a natural plant), which is also untaxed, is banned which has many healing effects and benefits, of course its bad smoking or eating it all the time - like most things. I dont actually smoke the stuff, once in a while i might but i hate men limiting my freedom and banning the natural creations of our universe.
Sorry for the long rant its important to see the big picture and ill leave you with this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLPG_HplrA
love and peace
August 5th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Jonny : Wow, impressive comment. I’m not quite sure what to say, a lot of info in there and you really seem to know your stuff. Fair play.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Nah I don’t really lol it has taken me 3 years of research just to comprehend this much! Cool blog you got here, I started up my own last night to write down my thoughts! =]