Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:07 amBritain and Ireland both have a serious problem with drink. In Ireland we have always had a terrible problem with alcohol, although in many ways this has largely changed. We still have a terrible problem with it but there are less ordinary Joes proping up bars spending their dole money because the country was in the toilet and bloody miserable. 
Now the drink problem lies with the fact that most people are fairly flush with cash. They work hard all week, earn lots of money and then blow in on a drunken rampage on the weekend.
In many ways the Irish have now come to represent the English binge drink culture.
Dublin in the past 5 years has become a seriously scary place on a Saturday night. Walking down O' Connell Street sober/soberish at 3-00am is an eye-opener. There are thousands of people around rotten drunk. Liverpool is much the same as Dublin, although on a smaller scale as it is a smaller city.
I used to enjoy alcohol as much as anybody and I still enjoy the occasional Guinness in my local, but as peewee said earlier, I could take it or leave it now.
I drank hard for 5 or 6 years solid. When I say "hard" I mean hard. I could polish anything off and usually did. It starts to mess with your life as it affects work, you eventually start losing friends and its impossible to stay in a relationship. I still get drunk every now and again, but probably only 2 or 3 times a year at this stage. Up until recently I went a few years without getting drunk.
Alcohol is ok if you can handle it, but believe me, anybody who gets trolleyed twice a week every week eventually can't handle it.
Now the drink problem lies with the fact that most people are fairly flush with cash. They work hard all week, earn lots of money and then blow in on a drunken rampage on the weekend.
In many ways the Irish have now come to represent the English binge drink culture.
Dublin in the past 5 years has become a seriously scary place on a Saturday night. Walking down O' Connell Street sober/soberish at 3-00am is an eye-opener. There are thousands of people around rotten drunk. Liverpool is much the same as Dublin, although on a smaller scale as it is a smaller city.
I used to enjoy alcohol as much as anybody and I still enjoy the occasional Guinness in my local, but as peewee said earlier, I could take it or leave it now.
I drank hard for 5 or 6 years solid. When I say "hard" I mean hard. I could polish anything off and usually did. It starts to mess with your life as it affects work, you eventually start losing friends and its impossible to stay in a relationship. I still get drunk every now and again, but probably only 2 or 3 times a year at this stage. Up until recently I went a few years without getting drunk.
Alcohol is ok if you can handle it, but believe me, anybody who gets trolleyed twice a week every week eventually can't handle it.
