Icelandic student’s view of our pub culture
She and two student colleagues managed an alcohol awareness event.
Normally such material is confidential. However, the student concerned has allowed me to send it to you.
“My first two years in Dublin were the hardest years to date. I felt very isolated, lonely and without friends. My culture (Icelandic) is not to drink on weekdays but rather to spend time with friends, going to a coffee house or meeting in a friend’s house to watch a film or have dinner.
“In Ireland, however, every day is a good day for drinking. I found it very hard to adjust to the fact that if I wanted to meet my friends, it had to be in a pub.
“This led me to feel they were not truly my friends since they had never been to my house and I’d hardly ever spent any ‘sober’ time with them. After my first two years I finally accepted that our cultures were very different in this regard.
“Now I occasionally join my friends for a drink on a week night or they may sometimes come to my house to watch a film or have dinner.”
I hope the extract is of some interest to your readers.
Anto Kerins
Dublin Institute of Technology
Cathal Brugha Street
Dublin 1
