Beer drinkers down one billion pints

IRISH beer drinkers downed more than one billion pints of beer last year as they drank most of Europe under the table.

Averaging at 256 pints of beer per head of adult population, the Irish just trail the hard-drinking Czechs, but galloped ahead of the Germans, Austrians and British.

A further major survey, published last week, showed Ireland topped the league along with Finland as Europe’s worst binge drinkers.

Health expert Rolande Anderson warned yesterday that successive generations are continuing to fulfil a 19th century image of the boozy Irish. “It’s time we dumped the drunken tag,” said Mr Anderson, a project director on an alcohol awareness campaign with the Irish College of General Practitioners.

“There’s too many Irish, especially those going or living abroad, trying to live up to that image.

“The ICGP would like to see a considerable reduction in the amounts of alcohol consumed and continue to get the message across to people of the adverse effects of alcohol on their health status.”

In the ten years up to the end of 2000, alcohol consumption in Ireland increased by 41%, with massive increases mainly in wines, spirits and alcopops. Beer consumption increased slightly throughout the 1990s.

Meanwhile, the 2003 figures on beer consumption per head in Europe were provided by brewer unions and associations around the world and published yesterday by the Czech Brewery Association.

The study found the Czech Republic, at 285 pints per head, was the highest, with Ireland in second place.

The Germans were third, at 216, with the Austrians, at 197 pints, while the British managed 174 pints per person per year.

The Czech brewery body revealed the scorching summer of 2003 led to an average 3% increase in beer drinking through Europe.