Alcohol — the curse of Christmas

RTÉ — the national broadcaster — has been advertising a Christmas greetings jingle on behalf of the Irish Vintners’ Association advising people to get their bums into the pub for a great Christmas.

The advert clearly states that everyone will be there, so don’t be ‘square’.

Presumably, through the sentiments expressed in the advert the publicans are suggesting that people who do not go to the pub are going to have a dull, boring festive season.

The fact is these ‘squares’ are probably very nice people who don’t need the crutch of alcohol or drunken company to help them to get through the emotional minefield that Christmas can be for many people.

They are people who enjoy the company of each other, of family and good friends in the warmth of their own homes.

They could be people whose own lives or the lives of relatives may have been blighted by the liquid Christmas cheer that publicans so readily offer for sale while listening to the tills ringing. They might be people who lost children or friends to drunken drivers at a previous Christmas alcohol orgy.

They could very well be the people whose children’s minds are being pickled by alcohol while they wait sleepless in their beds at Christmas time to hear them come home safely at ungodly hours of the morning.

The squares are sober people who live in the real world without alcohol and the last thing they deserve is for some yahoo to tell them they need to go to the pub to really enjoy Christmas.

Instead of insulting these proud people from the airwaves, the vintners should be singing the praises of the people who in all probability will be left to clean up the emotional and physical mess that alcohol causes around the time of Christ’s birthday.

Tom Fitzgerald

Four Roads

Askeaton

Co Limerick