Image source, Getty Images
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- author, Bob Howard
- Author title, BBC News Dublin
Jack loves to drink, and a typical night out will likely involve a few pints at the bar.
“If you have three pints, it’s very quiet,” the 29-year-old says. “Maybe a night of drinking, casually, would be more than six pints.”
Jack grew up in County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, where, he says, young men typically start drinking at 14 or 15, “usually in a field with a can of bad cider”.
“And then, at 17, your dad takes you to the pub, buys you a pint of Guinness, and that’s where things take hold.”
Ireland has a complex relationship with alcohol and many consider alcohol and socializing to be closely linked and part of the social fabric of everyday life.
Pubs are often a meeting point for communities, as there is often live music and many traditional songs celebrate or talk about the harms of heavy drinking. Major brands such as Guinness and Jameson are important export products.
Since 2020, supermarkets and convenience stores across the country have been forced to install physical barriers between their alcohol and general merchandise sections, while some alcohol bottles and cans now carry some of the strongest warning labels in the world.
Products bearing the new labels made legal for the first time in Ireland in 2023 – which state that alcohol consumption causes liver disease and is linked to deadly cancer – are already being sold in pubs and supermarkets across the country.
However, in a move condemned by public health advocates, the Irish government has delayed its mandatory introduction until 2028, citing global trade uncertainty, although some believe it is a result of pressure from the drinks industry.
For its part, the sector’s umbrella body, Drinks Ireland, said it hopes the Irish government will give leeway on health warning labels, and believes it should be agreed upon across the European Union.
Social life
When Jack moved to Dublin in 2015 to study journalism, he really got to know the capital’s nightlife.
“Dublin is a great place because there are always people drinking spontaneously, that’s what it’s known for,” he says. “Life revolves around the bar, with a lot of drinking.”
A great weekend outing for Jack usually starts with a few drinks at someone’s house – perhaps a bottle of gin and tonic shared between himself and three friends – before heading to the club for drinks.
Although he drinks heavily at times, Jack, who works in advertising, says he knows his limits and feels healthy.
“I’m very fit, I ran a marathon a year ago,” he says. “As long as you know what your limits are, I think it’s OK from a health standpoint.”
Three-quarters of the population in Ireland drink, and celebrations, from birthdays to weddings, often involve alcohol.
Consumption has fallen by around a third in the past 25 years, according to figures from the Irish Drinks Industry Group (DIGI).
Young people, on average, now start drinking at age 17, two years older than the average two decades ago. But once they start, their consumption and binge drinking are among the highest in Europe.
A report by advocacy group Public Health Ireland found that the proportion of people aged 15-24 who consume alcohol has increased (from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024) and that two in three people aged 15-24 regularly binge drink.
Are they of any use?
Activists believe alcohol warning labels in Ireland are having an increasing impact. But Amanda, 23, who saw the posters, isn’t so sure.
“You look at it and think: ‘Oh, I just drank that. Should I have another drink?”
Amanda doesn’t think people care much about health warnings, and thinks they may make some people more inclined to drink.
“I don’t think they care,” he says.
On a night out in Dublin, Amanda says she usually limits herself to a maximum of three drinks.
“I like to control what I do when I go out,” he says. “The truth is that I don’t drink much to avoid relaxing too much.”
He is aware of how young people are perceived on social media, and this influences his decisions about alcohol consumption.
“I don’t like taking pictures with a glass of wine or a Guinness,” he says. “I don’t want to be in compromising positions, and I don’t want people to have a negative image.”
Sean, 21, lives in DC and loves socializing with friends; Some drink, others don’t.
Unlike other parts of Europe, Sean says that if you want to socialize in the evening, there aren’t many options here other than going to the pub.
“There’s not much to do in Dublin after a certain hour,” says Sean. “Around six or seven o’clock, the city becomes a bit paralyzed. Sometimes, you just think, ‘I don’t feel like having a pint, but I want to sit somewhere and see my friends,’ so you have to ask for that.”
You’ve also seen warning labels about alcohol, but you’re not sure they stop you from drinking.
“Everyone knows it’s bad, but we do it anyway,” he says.
Sean’s friend Mark adds that warning labels on cigarettes are “much more clear” (Ireland has been a leader in restricting smoking and since 2004 you can’t smoke in the workplace, restaurants or bars).
Even before the new warning labels were introduced, some young Irish people in their 20s realized they were better off without alcohol.
Mark rarely drinks. “Once on my birthday, once on Christmas,” he says, partly because alcohol is expensive and it’s cheaper to choose something else.
“I don’t really like the taste,” says the 21-year-old. “I could probably get a Guinness, but I’m also concerned about the price; I save a lot of money just by buying Club Orange (an orange-flavored non-alcoholic soft drink).”
Helen is 27 years old and used to drink alcohol regularly when she was young. Although he hasn’t given up alcohol completely, like Mark, he says he can practically live without it.
“The last time I drank was in February,” Helen says. “It has diminished to the point where she is more or less abstinent, but she may or may not drink again.”
Helen’s friend Sam, who started drinking at 16 or 17, went a step further.
“It was kind of fun, then I went to university and started drinking more and more,” the 27-year-old says. “One day I realized I was exaggerating. My father said to me: What are you doing with your life? You have to stop drinking.”
In 2021, Sam signed up for a year-long beer-free course and then gave up alcohol completely. He didn’t drink for three years, and even stopped playing the concertina in bars because having a drink at a session was too ingrained. When you go to a bar, you choose to have a non-alcoholic drink.
But he says people sometimes find it difficult to accept that he is a teetotaler.
“There are some people you meet and you tell them you don’t drink and they look at you suspiciously.”
Unlike Sam, Jack does not like non-alcoholic drinks and thinks they are “a waste of time, because they cost the same as a pint.”
He thought about quitting drinking, but his resolve didn’t last long.
“Honestly, it’s very difficult to try to embark on a path of moderation in Ireland, because it’s so intrinsically ingrained in our culture,” says Jack.
I’ve always been a little interested in the idea of quitting drinking altogether, but I immediately dismiss myself and drink a pint.
The BBC asked the Irish Government why it was delaying the mandatory introduction of new alcohol warning labels until 2028. It said the decision was taken following concerns raised about the impact of its implementation on the current global trading environment.
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