How often do you drink

nice bit of green

Since last summer, got it down from bottle of wine indoors every Friday and Saturdays to maybe once every 2 months. The urges have largely gone. Best decision ever.

Few friends my age also trying to reduce intake.

Male mid 40s.

saabsaab

As for the fella that says he had a rake of pints he may be spoofing but there are a few (some dead now) that did. One guy used to have 8 or nine in town then follow up with the same again in the next village and so on till he got home. He had more st home! I guess in your fifties your capacity goes down and if you keep it up it would shorten your life.

Me I probably drink about 3 times a week (usually no more that 6) and maybe once a month go on a lash with someone, not to get drunk but I'd lose count of how many. I would at times have wine or a whiskey at home too and it's easy to lose track and finish a bottle without being aware. I probably should cut back on the home drinking.

shane b

My attitude to drinking may be a bit strange to some. I dont get the whole drinking at home thing so i prefer to go to the pub for a pint although i dont go too often. Last drink I had was a christmas nite out with work in december.

Im 45 with 3 kids ranging in age from 2 - 8. The younger ones dont sleep that well at night so i could be up so in the midddle of the night at any stage. Its not fun doing if you have drink on board and the hangover if you have to get up at 6 am is not worth it. The only time I drink now are work functions or if im away from home. Also I dont have any drinking buddies or family in the area and I live about 4 km form the local pub. I cant see this trend changing in the next 10 years until my oldest learns to drive maybe.

On the other hand my younger brother who is 42, still goes for a few every friday nite and the odd saturday nite. He works in construction and has always gone for a few after work or on the way home. His wife does all the child care stuff on a friday and saturday so he has no need to be home or sober enough to bring kids to matches, training etc the next day.

iamstop

43 M here.

Mid week can be none or 1 to 3 cans. Usually once or twice. Friday and Sat are usually 3 to 6 pints/cans. I do love a can or two on a Sunday but I can sometimes over do it and it makes me feel shite on the Monday if I don't have the chance to sleep it off. I need to knock the Sunday drinks on the head. Feel a lot better in work on the Monday for it.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178357#Comment_120178357

I was the same for a very long time i never drank at home ever, As alcohol for me was just for social outings ,

Then during lock down i done it once or twice & it was nice to unwind, So now i will do it most Friday & Saturday night with the missus just to unwind when the kids are gone to bed, but only have whiskey as i will literally just have 1 or 2 & I'm done so i never over do it,

The way i see it is if i had a Guinness or larger id get the goo & wake up with a sore head,

Girl Geraldine

Erra I wouldn't be fond of dhirnking, but when i do go at it i'd go at it awful and very hard. I'd have 45 pints in about two hours. I'd have a packet of crips then and maybe a packet of peanuts and I'd go for probably, erra I'd have 10 more anyway. I'd get up the following morning then and Maureen would have the fry on. And I'd go at it again. And there'd be no fúckin' stopping me. I'd take the shirt off any man's back. Bastards.

Girl Geraldine

In all seriousness though, drinking culture has changed immeasurably from when I was a gasun. It is a different world now. People drink hardly a fraction of what they drank years ago. I am surprised that so many are drinking so little.

Back in my fathers day, it would have been the norm for fathers to drink in the pubs most nights of the week after work. This was before the day of when fathers became actively involved in raising children. If you weren't at work, you were in the pub and if you weren't in the pub, you were at work. It might be only Sunday a father would be at home with the family for mass and Sunday dinner. This was the reason pubs were closed on Sunday back in those day - so fathers would have to go home to their family.

I remember many times having to find my father or deliver a message to him (this being the 90's before the era of mobile phones). If it was the evening time we knew just to go to the pub to find him for whatever it was because that is where he would be after finishing his work.

I remember being a gasun of 7 or 8 and for while my mother was in hospital over a good chunk of the summer. I would go with my dad during the days to his work jobs (was a builder and carpenter) and I'd spend my evenings in the back of the local drinking man's pub, eating chips and drinking coke, at listening to all sorts of shíte. When going home time came, off we'd go driving home. And do it all again the next day. This would have been considered a normal upbringing at the time, but if it were to go on nowadays you'd probably have Tusla called on you.

I also remember times I'd go to school probably absolutely reeking of cigarette smoke, having spent the previous evening in a smoke filled drinking man's pub.

It was commonplace for a family of children to be sat at home in rags with their belly stuck to their back bones because the father had drank his wages or dole, or had not come home on Friday and was still AWOL on Monday. I won't say that was the norm, but it was common enough for it not to be considered all that unusual.

My uncle and few friends used to go on all weekend pub crawls of all the rural pubs scattered around the county - drunk driving from one pub to the next. Often of a Monday, they would hardly recall where they had been over the weekend, or when they eventually came home they might have damage to the car from a minor crash, and not have the faintest idea as to where/when or how it occurred. This was back in the 1970s and 80s.

Mister Vain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182156#Comment_120182156

That's true. I remember when I started my first job 20 years ago. Half the staff didn't show up on a Monday morning because they were too hungover. You'd never see that now. My niece is 18 now and hardly drinks at all. Her mother was a big drinker at that age.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182156#Comment_120182156

Unfortunately there are still people & families who live life like that now,

To call it common place is a stretch , it was the life of the unfortunate,

quokula

I did a lot of binge drinking in my 20s but grew out of it. Or maybe I just had kids and responsibilities, moving house to a different town a few years ago certainly contributed too, it was never a conscious decision to cut back but it just kind of happened and I don't really miss it. Met a friend recently who is doing dry January and was counting down the days to February. I'm not actively doing dry January, but I don't think I've actually had a drink this month anyway.

I'll still have a good few pints if I'm out but that's usually limited to things like weddings, Christmas parties or other occasions.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182827#Comment_120182827

Many wives made sure to meet their husbands on pay day to get the money for bills etc before he hit the pub or it could be nearly all gone after. There was a Late Late show about Irish drinking habits in the 70s where a member of the audience (a docker I think) said he drank 6 or seven pints at lunch and after dinner in the evening go back to the pub hand have another 15! Every working day too.

thefallingman

I never drink at home, i go max twice a week and have maybe 3 pints each time, the very odd time i'll have a skinful. But with guinness gone up again i've already reduced my intake it's just too expensive. Pity as it's social for me, and the aul boy regulars i meet for a chat. Times have changed though the pub and drinking culture will never be the same again.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182932#Comment_120182932

The post was about the 90s not the 70's

FortuneChip

I might have a glass of whiskey one or two nights a week at home.

Might go pub once or twice a month for a couple of pints max.

And then might have a larger session with a few mates once every month or two.

If I'm out for dinner. I'll probably have wine or a beer depending on the food, but not a lot.

I know ten years ago, I'd be out two or three nights a week for the "sesh". I don't miss that at all.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182988#Comment_120182988

Really?

Tornaedo

About once or twice a month when I meet up with friends in the local. Normally we drink about 5 or 6 pints each though personally I'd like to cut it down to 3 pints or perhaps just replace some of the pints with non-alcoholic pints.

dont really often at all. It’s fairly sporadic I might have a cider or whiskey maybe. Christmas usually or me birthday.

that said I didn’t have anything at Christmas 2022 and I can’t remember if I did 2021. Always found drink too expensive and I can’t justify the price pubs charge.

Dont really have any time for drink talk either like drunk people talking shite just wrecks me head.

JupiterKid

The Irish pub and drinking culture is dying out, and that is not a bad thing given how many alcoholics kept so many pubs going and how many publicans that were only too happy to take money off these alcoholics that should have been giving it to their wives to feed and clothe the endless number of children at home that had hungry mouths to feed.

Irish towns in the past were over-pubbed and alcohol was a coping mechanism in a country and society that was characterized by poverty, unemployment, lack of opportunities, religious oppression and general misery. Drink was the scourge of Irish society and the cause of the vast majority of violent assaults at weekends etc.

It’s really great to see the young drinking far less than my generation.

bb1234567

Usually only once a week. I suffer social anxiety so unfortunately my anxiety takes over at social events and I almost always end up drinking more than I should. When I do drink I usually drink 5 or 6 pints which is too much , trying to cut it back to only drinking once every fortnight and only 2-3 pints when I do.

I'm 26 now and hoping to kick the weekend binge culture from my life, although it's a difficult task living in London. It is so engrained in socialising here, even more so than Dublin in my experience. It also has so many calories and is so overprice , I'm truing to save and get in shape so alcohol is just not aligning with my goals anymore.

Riddle101

Special occasions usually. Mainly Christmas, New Year's Eve, St Patrick's Day, and Birthdays. Sometimes in the summertime when it's hot, I'll get some drink in. Never overdo it though.

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182932#Comment_120182932

Not excusing the doctor there by any means but pints have only gotten stronger since those days. Used to be rare to have anything in pints over 5%, now it's rare to find any craft beer under 5%. 6 to 7% seems to be the norm these days.

snowgal

I have to say Im fairly surprised with the posts so far, in a good way! It seems majority of ppl on here so far really dont drink that much. so where are all the heavy binge drinkers we hear of then? Have to admit, I drink more than alot of you here 😳 but since Christmas Ive really cut back for the first time, finally dawned on me what damage I could be doing....Not that I suffer anxiety or bad hangovers but I imagine my body is begging fr a break... for me its just wine wine wine. I dont really have an interest in other alcohol but I do like my wine. Id have a glass every night and then a few bottles over the weekend, sometime out sometimes just at home with OH. But the time has come to change the habits now...

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120188338#Comment_120188338

I think the majority of the really heavy drinkers are gone. The lockdown probably stopped a few and some probably are drinking a lot more at home on the quiet.

Tony EH

How often do you drink

Probably way too much these days. Was out on Saturday for a wedding do. Then out for a few on Monday night and last night down the local. Might head out for a couple tonight and I'll definitely be heading out over the long weekend.

🍺

bb1234567

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120189450#Comment_120189450

Dunno about that. Average alcohol consumption in Ireland is 12.75 litres of pure alcohol annually as of 2023, up slightly from 12.7 litres in 2019. Equivalent to a bottle and a half of wine per week. Given 20% of irish are teetotalers that means the 'average drinker' drinks more than that figure of 12.75 littres per annum.

Unfortunately this is high by global standards, 5th highest in the world. Surprisingly just behind us is Spain though, mostly known for it's relaxed low key attitude towards drinking.

Also it is interesting that despite the known link between alcohol and health impacts, it's strange that for Ireland it hasn't had a large impact. We still have one of the highest life expectancies despite high alcohol consumption. Wonder if it would be among the highest on earth if we cut back on drinking? We are one of only 22 countries on earth where the average man AND average woman typically live beyond 80.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195663#Comment_120195663

Ireland's "high" alcohol consumption is a bit of a misnomer though. While we do, indeed, like a bit of a tipple, it's mostly limited to beers. Pints in a pub or a few cans at home is the usual procedure. Contrast that with other nations, were going out means horsing a shitload of whiskey or vodka down your throat and a beer is considered a "soft" drink. We Irish think we're big drinkers, but we're really not. There are nations around the globe that would put us to shame on a night out. I've seen it in various places in the States.

Our biggest "issue", if we want to call it that, is that we like to go out and socialise. So we tend to drink more often. But while a session here might last between 4 and 6 hours, we usually only drinking pints of beer of some description. In other countries, a session may be shorter but you'll see people drinking all sorts of wild crap, because the goal is to get rat arsed.

In the likes of America they have very strict laws about serving alcohol. You'll be lucky to get in anywhere if you're under 21 and if a premises is caught serving alcohol to a, so called, "minor" they can have their licence revoked really fast. So when young people over there turn 21 they go fucking bonkers. They often can't wait to get out on the rip and go "party". This leads to a really high instance of alcoholism in young Americans. So much so, that many of them end up never touching a drop again. The amount of Americans, in their 20's and 30's, I've met that are "dry" has been quite high. And when asked why I've found out that they were absolute tearaways and mad for the stuff as soon as they could get their hands on it legally.

In Ireland, we may have a bad rep as far as alcohol is concerned (largely undeserved IMHO), but the vast majority of us can enjoy a drink for our entire lives and not see the chronic effects of it and, as you say, life expectancy is pretty decent here.

Every Saturday. Cans of Bulmers or two/three glasses of wine. This makes me tipsy but not drunk.

Very occasionally a second night - Friday, or Sunday of long weekend.

I haven't had a hangover since summer 2021, and won't ever. They become horrific after a certain point.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195663#Comment_120195663

Maybe but then again a little is likely to do some good? I had a relation who lived well into their 90s and had a whiskey or two every night!

Billcarson

Generally once a week. 4 cans of cider. Used to drink alot more when was in my 20s ,like most I suppose. 49 now. Married with kids those days are long gone. Don't really miss the pub though anyway ,only go to a pub a few times a yr nowadays.

petes

Most days none but if I do have a drink it's usually 2-3 naggins of vodka. Alcoholic. That and if I have any some xanax.

Before my last binge that landed me in hospital I was drinking 2 naggins and 6 cans for breakfast.

Girl Geraldine

The culture is definitely changed from 30 years ago. Back then there were hoards of fellas who were lifelong "pintmen", "fond of a pint" or a "divel for the drink" . All euphemisms for being a functioning chronic alcoholic. Fellas who would get paid on the friday and take to the pub until it was all gone. The day of that being the norm is definitely over.

Back then it was all proper drinking man's pubs with formica bar counters, lino tile floors, red vinyl stools and tabacco branded jugs and ash trays. A fag machine in the corner. Porter, Bass or Powers. Taytos and score orange for the children if you had them with you while you spend the day getting ratarsed telling tall tales of being in the IRA. If you wanted upmarket you went to the bar in the local hotel.

Nowadays it is all café bars, gastro pubs and faux traditional pubs. Made to cater for the instagrammers with their obscure and overpriced cocktails. Bar staff are obnoxious posers with notions, or disinterested and clueless part timers. Neither type can pull a proper pint of porter.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196294#Comment_120196294

That's about it the new pubs aren't the same at all. Don't remember the IRA bit just stories about getting in and out of trouble and what 'insert name' locally was getting up to now.

Girl Geraldine

Nah, they're not. They want to sell you food mainly.

I've seen a few old style now refurbished pubs now that won't even take an order for drink at the bar, which appears mainly to be kept just for show and you can't sit at the bar because they have no stools. They want you to sit at a table and then they will come and take your order. The real reason is so they shove an expensive food menu under your nose.

All a fella wants is a pint of Guinness and you can't order it or have it at the bar. And you are served by snotty young wans with degrees in hospitality and no clue how to converse with someone. I'd rather be served by Mick "The Bull" Daly.

Patrick2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196266#Comment_120196266

Now thats what I was hoping to read about in this thread!, not this sensible one pint and a glass of wine a week!. Thought I'd be reading about those now working from home enjoying the freedom of opening a bottle of wine at lunch hour after a hard mornings work.

I'd agree with the poster who says the Irish have an undeserved reputation for drinking. Health campaigners regularly quote some high percentage of Irish people confessing to binge drinking on occasion. The definition of binge drinking is 5 or more drinks in a session, a standard drink is like one glass of beer so 2 and a half pints is a binge.

Girl Geraldine

I was hoping to hear wild tales of pintmen drinking the paypacket and leaving the wife and children at home with their belly stuck to their back bones with the hunger and rain coming in the roof. Maybe dish out a few flakings with your belt when you eventually rock up home penniless . Old school hard drinking men.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196427#Comment_120196427

Yeah. It's a sad downturn. All of these pretentious crafty **** gastritis horrors made for ****.

Give a good old boozer any day of the week with lively banter and a bit of craic. I'll eat on way home.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196478#Comment_120196478

Ah yes, the good old days!

Girl Geraldine

The makings of a good, character building upbringing. Sure a happy childhood wouldn't be worth your while.

thefallingman

why anyone pays insane money for horrible craft beer is beyond me, too much money and zero sense. I've yet to meet someone i like that drinks that stuff.