The Irish Way Of Life

Sam here....




Drink is a serious problem here in Ireland. We're second to the UK for our consumption in Europe. I don't drink every weekend, I'm not a binge drinker, but let me tell you how a Saturday night in Dublin would go down.

We'd meet anywhere between 7 & 8. Out of a group of about 14 of us, 4 are over 18, the legal age to buy drink. Orders would be written down and consolidated. If there were three naggins of vodka for 3 girls, we'd buy a bottle. It's cheaper & you get more. There's 7 off licences (Liquor stores/ Off Sales) within walking distance of where we'd meet. So Say the order was

• 3 naggins
• 6 Heineken
• 3 cobra
• I naggin So Co
• 2 large fat frog
• 3 large Smirnoff Ice.

We couldn't get that in one place, so we(the over 18s)split the order up and go to individual off licences to get them and meet back. And it can be done. Very easily, there's never an issue, except maybe buying too much in the one place.

Oh, there's a 2000Euro fine if your caught buying drink for minors, but the chances of getting caught are so slim, and the under 18s are in somebody's house waiting for the drink anyway. That's our lovely loophole.

I've got a solution;

A 'UnitCard'. Simply everybody in the Republic Of Ireland over the age of 18 will be given one of these cards. It will be a personal account. Every retailer that sells Alcohol will have a scanner that these cards are swiped into. There is a weekly 'Ceiling Limit' on these cards, like you can't buy significant amounts in the space of one hour or a weekly limit of units? This would defiantly stem the problem. Also, what about a stepped system? As in 18-21 year olds have a limited amount of units, 21-30 year olds have an increase and 30+ is unlimited?

Just putting that out there!


Current Listening; The Bright Eyes - The First Day Of My Life