Time to stop drinking ourselves to death

YOUR correspondent Deirdre Manifold (Irish Examiner letters, March 12) suggests that we should feel sympathy for the thugs who kicked and beat to death a young lad of their own ilk outside a Dublin nightclub. This incident was said to be ‘drink-related’.

Whilst I feel extreme sorrow for the unfortunate young man who died so tragically, and for his parents and family, why does Ms Manifold feel anything other than revulsion towards the perpetrators of this senseless killing?

Why were there no murder charges? Was it because they were allegedly drunk? Does drunkenness excuse the taking of a human life? Was it because they were said to have attended a well known fee-paying school?