The Irish Drinking Culture???
If you head to an American beach town, you will see Bob Marley and Irish Drinking t-shirts on sale at every vendor. On SaintPatricksDay, people across the globe gather together wearing green, making toasts, and getting hammered. A fact; God created beer to prevent the Irish from taking over the world. And everyone knows that the only difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral is one less drunk.Â
In many instances (too many???), when people think of the Irish, they associate it with the over consumption of alcohol. Folks are drawn to Irish culture because they link it with drinking and having a good time…but is this for better or worse? Is it something that Irish individuals should work to change or embrace? Is this a fair sterotype?  Is this perspective an Irish-American one or do people around the world think similarly of the Irish?Â
What do you think?
December 17th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
You pose an interesting question. It seems to me that we’re dammed if we do, and dammed if we don’t. Since alcohol was first discovered, it has been used as customary for everything from Celebrations to enhance the spirit, to an anesthesia to dull the pain. That being said, it’s important to remember that there is a significant difference between the “Alcoholic” and the “heavy drinker”. One of the reason’s that alcoholism is so prevalent among the Irish is that it’s relatively new to the culture. The same holds true for the American Indians, and the Russians. So, back to your question, do we embrace it? In my opinion, this is a very personal question and one that each of us must confront in our own way. If we leave it to society to answer as a whole then the purpose, meaning, and potential benefits of the drug become mute. Society is a mob, and like all mobs it has the tendency to act first and answer questions later. Alcohol and the decision to consume it should not be a mob question, rather a personal one. As a society, however we should act to respect the individual’s personal opinion, and not place our own opinions in higher priority. Anyway, this is just my opinion. Like it or not, I say yes, we should embrace it.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
One of the reasons people drink is because they feel that drinking is drinkable when those drunks are less of a drunkard but more of a drinker. I feel that logic can be applied to drinks everywhere, and if just one drunk could down one last drink to make a difference, than surely Ill drink to that.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:29 am
ppl drink to get drunk simple as that