The trouble with drink

A Chairde,

I was really disturbed by the attitude of Paul O'Connor to drink in his article, 'Drunken Paddies' (21 August). What country is he from, exactly?

While I agreed with his sentiment that Michael McDowell's drink legislation is over the top and doesn't deal with the social problems that lead to alcoholism, I don't agree with his half-baked ideas that this country doesn't have a problem with drink.

Paul makes some reference to middle-aged commentators making up fairytales about our streets being full of vomit and unconscious bodies come the weekend. If he thinks this is a myth, he needs to spend Friday night walking around Dublin city centre.

And our deep affinity to drink doesn't stop with making a show of ourselves in town a few nights a week. Last week, a district judge said that the majority of all domestic violence cases she sees are directly related to drink. In fact, according to Alcoholics Anonymous, drink is the leading reason for family break ups in Ireland.

Paul's statistics to back up his argument that we are almost teetotalers are off the wall. He says that while our drinking only increased by 40% in the last ten years, our average income has increased by 50%, so we're spending less of our money on alcohol. Well, just because you're earning more, doesn't mean you can up your drink intake - especially if it was at its highest to begin with. There's only so much the body can take.

He also says that most European countries on average drink only one litre less than us a year. Unlike us, however, Europeans tend to drink throughout the week, in moderation, and often with dinner. We usually have mash throughout the week and down 35 pints between Friday and Saturday. This isn't healthy drinking.

He then points to the drugs culture in Ireland and says that the government should focus on that. Unfortunately, drink is the common drug of choice and has to receive priority. How many husbands are going home and beating up their wives after spending a night getting stoned, or off their faces on cocaine?

Nobody wants a big brother type Ireland and everybody is laughing at McDowell's inability to see that we need to adopt a mature attitude to drink, not a prohibitive one. But Paul has missed the point - we are a nation reliant on alcohol, and no amount of slagging off those who point it out is going to change that.

Joanne Corcoran
Dublin.