Irish Drinking Culturehistorical evolution

The Irish drinking culture is a part of the history of pubs. When the Romans ruled in Ireland, a huge network of roads was built. On important places the Romans established the first inns to host traveller like merchants. After the fall of Roman British kingdoms in 440, the Anglo Saxons settled Ireland. They changed these inns into alehouses. Ale houses were establishments where you met people, drank alcohol, got food or just listened to the classical Irish music. Many times the whole village was in that public house. Its short form is “pub”. These “pubs” became so popular that King Edgar enacted a law in 965 which included, that there should be just one alehouse per village.

current status

The average Irish drinks about 11 litres of pure alcohol in one year. A Swiss drinks 8 litres of pure alcohol. The difference between Irish and Swiss is that the Irish drink much more beer (131 litre of beer per year). It’s also a habit to celebrate any holiday with drinking alcohol. Also in Ireland the problem with drugs has become bigger and the variety of drugs has become available in the past 20 years.

influence among young people

• “Feast of Saint Patrick”

• Hard drinking in Ireland is highest among the 18-24 year old age group

• Half of children (10-16 years) confirmed that they drink a lot of alcohol several times in a month

• second highest rate of binge drinking in the world

Why do some Irish drink so much?

• family background

• When men are isolated from women they drink much more (Boarding school)

• They go in pubs with their family

Guinness

• Guinness is the most famous drink in Ireland• The beer gets brewed around the world since 1759• A “perfect pour” should take 119.5 seconds• Guinness is sold in 150 countries• Most Guinness is sold in Africa• Over 10 million glasses are sold each day in the world• Guinness is often called “diet drink” because it only has about

200 calories• “Guinness is good for you” is the slogan of this brand• The foam stays creamy and durable

Denis Vrabec, Luca Hangl

other Irish drinks

Irish Whiskey (Black Bush, Jameson, etc.)

Irish Tea (Irish tea is a strong blend of several black teas, mostly Assam Indian teas.)

Irish Coffee (Irish tea combines coffee, Irishwhiskey, sugar and freshly whipped cream)

Bulmers Cider (an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples.)

sources

www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink www.yourirish.com/culture/drink-in-ireland www.medicaldaily.com www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Ireland www.nzz.ch/schweiz/so-viel-alkohol-trinken-die-schweizer www.guinness.com

Denis Vrabec, Luca Hangl