A drinking society

Tuesday February 22 2005

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/a-drinking-society-275213.html

Sir - Reading Helen Bruce's article 'Ryanair is lashed over promotion of alcohol targeted at teenagers' seems to indicate a fresh drive on the 'demon drink' in Ireland. The article portrays these vodka sachets as some kind of evil substance for preying on the young. Is the prohibition of these sachets really going to stop binge drinking in a country where the pub is the main,
Sir - Reading Helen Bruce's article 'Ryanair is lashed over promotion of alcohol targeted at teenagers' seems to indicate a fresh drive on the 'demon drink' in Ireland. The article portrays these vodka sachets as some kind of evil substance for preying on the young. Is the prohibition of these sachets really going to stop binge drinking in a country where the pub is the main, and in many areas the only, point of social contact? Once more, the drinks industry is presented as the scapegoat and the retailers as irresponsible. Indeed the only person who does not have to accept responsibility in the matter is the consumer of alcoholic beverages.

Personal responsibility simply does not enter the equation. Ireland is perhaps one of the few countries where you can get drunk, cause trouble and blame it on the person who sold the alcohol to you, or even better say 'it was the drink that made me do it'. Such excuses do not work anywhere else. The binge drinking of the Irish and their English neighbours does not seem to occur on the continent. Why is that? Could it not be that the problem with alcohol in Ireland lies not with the sale of vodka sachets, but with Irish society itself? Ronan-Gearoid O Domhnaill, Koppstrasse 55/5, 1160 Vienna