Great comment. Thanks for reading. And thanks for putting together such a thoughtful response.

Back to your original question of why do we drink so much? Perhaps we do it out of habit. Going to the pub is as much a rite of passage for us as perhaps, going fishing or hunting is for some North Americans. Getting drunk at the weekend is often a precursor to spending all of Monday talking about how drunk we were at the weekend. At times we seem to revel in our drunken antics, our drunken reputations, but I don’t know why we do.

The monasteries involvement in brewing beer came about in Ireland as it did in most of Europe as a way of dealing with water that was not always the cleanest or purest, and of using up excess barley or wheat. I have never heard it suggested that the church ever used it as a tool to keep the populace in line.

On the other hand, I had a history teacher many years ago who told us that the reason there were so many pubs in Ireland was because the ruling British government turned a blind eye to breaches of the licensing laws, so that we would have more opportunities to meet drink and talk about our plans for revolution, and they would have as many opportunities to listen to our plotting and thwart our plans. In light of their involvement with the opium trade in China in the 19th century it’s not so far fetched.

Anyway, thanks again for a thought provoking read and perhaps one of your other readers will be able to answer your questions as I for one still do not understand why we drink the way we do.

Thanks so much for not just reading the blog, but for doing research on its behalf. This is great. You’ve really helped to answer my questions.

-Glenn

I thought it was very interesting and provocative, and being the librarian that I am, I found some other books on the subject that you can add to your list of things to read. This issue about Alcoholism and Ireland goes back to the 18th century to the present and it was interesting to find these books/letters discussing that issue, e.g.

1) An earnest address to the people of Ireland : against the drinking of spirituous liquors
by William Henry (1753) and

2) A letter to the Right Hon. Henry Grattan, on the deplorable consequences resulting to Ireland from the very low price of spirituous liquors : pointing out the causes of the aggravated encrease of those evils, and entreating his attention to the necessity and means of remedying them.by Friend to Ireland.; Henry Grattan (1811)

A more recent book that I thought was interesting too, is from 2010, Benign anarchy : Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland by Shane Butler.

Happy reading and thanks for the great post!
Marisol

Summary: Author Shane Butler tells the story of how Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was established in Ireland – the first European country to start an AA group – in 1946, and how it gradually came to establish itself as a mainstream Irish institution, the need for which has become clearer as alcohol consumption levels increase. AA is described as a hybrid institution, straddling healthcare and religion, and the book looks in detail at how early Irish members negotiated working relationships with the mental health system and the dominant Catholic Church. The book also focuses on AA’s commitment to the avoidance of conventional, organizational management systems, involving clearly-identified leaders and top-down instructions for front-line members. The survival of AA in Ireland, as elsewhere, is attributed primarily to the fact that it has remained firmly outside of alcohol politics, seeing itself as a ‘fellowship’ which exists only to help individuals who seek its help in relation to their own powerlessness over alcohol. It is recognized, paradoxically, that AA in Ireland could not have negotiated such a smooth entry to this country without the energies and skills of its early leaders, and this book documents the activities of these leaders who – with the assistance of AA in the United States – strategically managed the fellowship’s establishment in a potentially hostile environment.

Although I did find that call to stop drinking so much in Ireland goes back to the 18th century as these interesting letters pointed out:

An earnest address to the people of Ireland : against the drinking of spirituous liquors
by William Henry. Published in 1753

A letter to the Right Hon. Henry Grattan, on the deplorable consequences resulting to Ireland from the very low price of spirituous liquors : pointing out the causes of the aggravated encrease of those evils, and entreating his attention to the necessity and means of remedying them. Published in 1811.

Happy reading!
Marisol

Thanks so much for taking the time to read the blog, and especially for taking the time to contribute to the discussion (thanks for commenting).

It may well be that some part of my brain included those two because ‘Five Things I Hate…’ sounds better than “Three Things I Hate’, but I don’t think so.I included those two simply.

As my blog is aimed at discussing problems of modern immigration, I want to help people understand what challenges they’ll face when relocating to a different country. As small as they may seem, these are hurdles to be overcome. And, I have had numerous requests from new immigrants for more information about pet care resources.

As for the taps, aside from just being a cultural or convenience issue, it does speak to a basic hygiene plumbing issue. Separate taps are unsanitary. Basically if you have anything unclean on your hands, the only option is to either scald yourself in boiling water, or create a broth in the sink in which whatever that unclean/toxic material is the seasoning. That’s pretty gross in a Third World sort of way, could be easily fixed, and is completely unforgivable in a country that feels compelled to praise itself as the ‘best small country’.

While I have no earthly idea how one begins to quantify “best country in the world”, you may be right about the rest of it.