Alcohol abuse - Drinking ourselves to death

INTERNATIONAL reports on alcohol abuse invariably turn the spotlight on Ireland and, according to the latest survey, Irish people are drinking themselves to death.

Medical experts have issued dire warnings over the speed of Ireland's race to the top of the European league for alcohol consumption.

According to a comparative study of drinking habits across Europe, published in the influential Lancet medical journal, record numbers of Irish people and Britons, particularly Scots, are drinking themselves into an early grave.