Let’s go back to the pub — but drink less

I NOTE with interest the comments regarding the possible link between suicide and the closure of rural pubs (Irish Examiner, February 14).

I endorse the need to study this in detail, but caution is needed lest this idea takes hold without scrutiny.

The link between alcohol and suicide is well established internationally, and in Ireland it is most evident in the suicides of younger males for which we have become sadly renowned.

The pub gave a sense of social cohesion and belonging to isolated and often single rural persons, but its decline has left a real gap and a challenge for us as a community.

However, more alcohol for Ireland — up 300% since 1960 — will bring only more misery and death, especially when sold outside the restraints and controls of the local licensed premises.

We need to get back to the pub, but we need to reduce our drinking as well.

Profits are dictating drinking patterns in both pubs and supermarkets, but the publicans must be clear that to wean us back inside their premises they must adapt and invent to add value to their already excellent services.

They are resourceful, but supermarket and off-licence sales have to be further regulated if we are not to wind up like some countries where drinking is conducted mainly on the streets and in the parks.

However, we are well on the way to this, so publicans must press their advantages soon or we will all be the losers.

Dr Justin Brophy

Irish Association of Suicidology

New Antrim Street

Castlebar

Co Mayo