Forty bottles of vodka per person a year – Ireland’s alcohol consumption among highest in the world

29 comments
  1. I’m almost bang average going by these standards, I always assumed I’d rank amongst the higher percentiles.

  2. And yet our life expectancy is well above the EU average. We’re actually pretty much the same as France.

  3. At my highest level of heavy drinking, I probably would have gone through a bottle of vodka per week. I’m much more moderate these days though.

  4. From the article: 40 bottles of vodka, or 113 bottles of wine, or 436 pints of beer. That doesn’t sound so much. 10 years ago, I was going out socially with my coworkers after work, and averaged between 2 and 3 pints per day (mind you, not every day, but on a Thursday or Friday we’ve all had around 6 pints each, plus a few odd pints in between). I considered myself a social drinker, rarely had a hangover, and always remembered (and never regretted) the previous evening. According to this statistic, I was well above the 1.2 pints per day average. So, if the article’s average is just counting everyone of drinking age, the numbers don’t really surprise me.

  5. Recent medical study came out that said NO amount of alcohol is good for you. I still have the odd glass of wine but already feel better giving it up. I’m losing a bit of weight and my mental health has improved.

  6. Unsurprising given the amount of romantic illusions most people have about culture and booze. Hundreds of upvotes for a painting of a young child being fed a pint of stout yesterday.

  7. I happen to be on holidays right now and how we are perceived abroad regarding our drinking is absolutely shocking.

    A nation of drunkards and alcoholics is something that comes to mind quickly for many people I’ve found.

    A French guy was only telling me this morning, on finding out I was from Ireland, that Ireland is the only country on earth they he has seen a 12-14 year old lad pissed off his face drunk in a public place in the middle of the day. And I find we don’t exactly help this reputation either in how many people conduct themselves when abroad. The amount of lads on things like a J1 being an absolute nuisance abroad does a disservice to our country.

  8. I’m not a drinker and in no way judge anyone who does at all.

    But Jaysus

    I’m not the only person who doesn’t, which would make the numbers even higher per person.

    That’s mental.

  9. Every one of my foreign friends who holidayed here went home with an increased drinking tolerance that sparked concerns in their friends and family.

    We buy in to the whole idea and are stupidly proud of it, as if there’s nothing else we could have pride in.

  10. I’m always suspicous of the methodolgy used in these surveys compared to how its measured in other countries. The measurements in the HRB ones for Ireland are dervied from the tax numbers from revenue. But how are ones elsewhere in the world captured? – many countries have huge issues with alcohol tax or certain sales are exempt from it – like buying wine from a vineyard in france.

    I’m sure the Irish stats are reasonably in line but I do wonder a lot about how accurate our 9th place is in the world.

  11. This isn’t factual, I only drink 35 bottles of vodka per year .but I am to bring that number up for next year…those are rookie numbers

  12. The real figure is much lower as the average has been skewed by Paddy Losty who drinks 8000 bottles a year and should not have been counted

  13. Some people love talking about alcohol. I have a friend and nearly gets on a horn talking about it. It’s all I was down in the local and having a couple of pints. On about all these IPA drinks. I just had to say to him I don’t give a shit. But we all know people who talk about how much the drank and how pissed they were. One that annoyed me was someone who would say. If you don’t remember how you got home, you’d have a good night.

  14. >the level of alcohol consumption in Ireland fell only marginally by 6.5pc

    That’s an enormous drop in a single year.

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