Drop in Patrick’s Day drunkenness, says senior garda

Efforts to break the ‘drunken Irish’ stereotype on St Patrick’s Day in Dublin resulted in one of the most enjoyable festivals ever, according to a senior garda.

Chief superintendent Michael O’Sullivan, who is responsible for the Dublin Metropolitan Region South Central, said there had been less drunkenness and antisocial behaviour over this year’s St Patrick’s weekend. “There is a message out there that excessive drinking is unacceptable and that message is getting through,” he said.

The Garda officer, who was speaking at the launch of a new drinkaware.ie campaign to encourage more moderate drinking, said provisional figures showed there had been a decrease in the number of public order and intoxication offences in Dublin south central — the hub of the country’s nighttime economy.

The number of public order and intoxication offences had fallen by a third over the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2011.

There had also been an 11% decrease in the number of assaults.

Drinkaware.ie’s campaign aims to encourage people to pace their drinking.

While Irish people drink less often than their European counterparts, they drink more and drink faster.

Chief executive of drinkaware.ie, Fionnuala Sheehan, said the campaign was the second phase of its Rethinking Our Drinking initiative.

Ms Sheehan said the ideal pace to drink at is one standard drink per hour, as this reflected the amount of alcohol the body could on average process in this period of time. “The practice of drinking in rounds remains quite engrained in Ireland and often results in the group drinking to the pace of the fastest drinker.

“Pre-loading in the home before going out has become prevalent, particularly among younger consumers,” Ms Sheehan said.

She said Drinkaware.ie were encouraged by research carried out in January which found seven out of 10 people felt one to two standard drinks per hour was a reasonable drinking pace.

The research also found 86% of people agree that excessive drinking is becoming less acceptable and 92% also agreed that being drunk in public was very unattractive to the opposite sex. It also found 83% of people organise transport to avoid anyone in the group drink driving.

The campaign will be conveyed through a variety of media outlets including TV, radio, video on demand, cinema and radio advertising, along with outdoor advertising and use of social media.

The advertisement can be seen on www.drinkaware.ie.

* The programme was developed by Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Ireland Limited, a registered charity established in 2002 by alcohol manufacturers, distributors and licensed trade associations in Ireland.