Blowing the final whistle on drinking culture

Among the many concerns of parents in modern Ireland, the emotional wellbeing of teenage children looms large. The manifestations of emotional "un-wellness" are not only commonplace but also very graphic.

Teen suicide, depression, eating disorders and substance abuse are some of the issues which demand a national debate on the wellbeing of children in this society.

In attempting to address this matter it would be a mistake to adopt a starting position that endorses the view that these young people are somehow separate from the wider society and that this malaise is unique to a particular stage in the life cycle, which they will grow out of as they get older. Rather, it might be more useful to see it as the inevitable consequence of wider processes and cultural patterns that are general throughout the wider society.

While it is probably true that many adolescents live lives that are unfamiliar and incomprehensible to their parents' generation, it is also likely that this is true only of a minority of young people. Young people have always looked to ritualised ways of apparent disengagement from the adult world, while at the same time staying close enough to the shore to not drown by venturing out of their depth. High levels of youth drinking, for instance, should not be seen as some kind of cultural discontinuity with the adult world. It is on the contrary, an extension and a reflection of the adult world in which young people are essentially mirroring socially-approved adult behaviour.

Alcohol is typically the most widely-abused substance among young people, with more of them using alcohol than tobacco or other illicit drugs. Studies in the US have shown that while most six-year-olds know that alcohol is only for adults, between the ages of nine and 13 children begin to think more positively about alcohol use. Even though the legal age of drinking in the US is set at 21, more than one-quarter of all alcohol consumed there is drunk by people under the age of 20.

Generally, when young people drink, they drink more than adults, they run a greater risk of heavy drinking later in life and have a greater exposure to injury or death as a result of underage drinking. Such activity also impairs normal day-to-day functioning in work or educational settings.

The link between part-time work and heavy drinking amongst students is an increasing cause of concern amongst academics in third-level institutions. Some are alarmed at declining attendance at lectures, high rates of examination failure and high drop-out rates. Even in second level, teachers increasingly draw attention to the difficulties of Monday morning classes as 15- and 16-year-olds recover from the excesses of the weekend.

The usual response to matters of public concern - especially as they affect young people - is a collective wringing of hands before looking to the schools to come up with the solution. Such an approach, however, is likely to have little value. It is predicated on a view of youth drinking that sees it as an aberration in an otherwise healthy society, rather than as the inevitable outcome of a social and cultural context which so fundamentally approves of alcohol.

Irish young people are surrounded on a daily basis with the positive glow of the alcohol industry. The capacity of the industry to attach itself to organisations and activities that command enormous public support and goodwill is a key part of this strategy.

Teachers - particularly in primary school but also in second level - attest to the value of the GAA in the lives of young people. It provides them with recreational activity, identity with place and team-mates and a ready reservoir of locally-based heroes. Perhaps more than any other organisation, it captures the soul and spirit of a place, harnessing a major communitarian energy in a vast national movement, and uniquely underpinned by a motivation that is moral rather than market driven.

The association of such a positive force with alcohol somehow transfers the innate virtues of athleticism, team loyalty and self-challenge, integral to Gaelic games, to alcohol. The fact that youth drinking so fundamentally undermines and corrupts these very qualities becomes lost in the public consciousness.

As Irish parents and young people look around for iconic male role models they are quite likely to look no further than the current Kilkenny hurlers. The combination of athleticism, artistry, commitment to excellence and selflessness which they embody are highly-prized attributes in this society. The understated modesty which so characterises them, and which they bring to their achievements, further elevates them and enhances the esteem in which they are held by the public.

It is enormously ironic therefore that an organisation such as the GAA, which has made such a profound contribution to so many aspects of Irish life should find itself so compromised by its association with the drinks industry. Other sports organisations, most particularly in the world of rugby are equally exposed.

This association between sport and alcohol is sometimes even stronger than merely one of promotion. An increasing number of sports clubs are constructing club houses which include bars. So young people, pursuing their favourite sport must do so in an ambience which normalises and celebrates alcohol consumption.

The purpose here is not to castigate these sporting bodies for accepting sponsorship from the drinks industry. It is rather to ask why such a valuable element in the life of society in general, and in that of young people in particular, must rely on commercial sponsorship to fund its core activities. Would it not be more appropriate to see organisations such as the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI as key elements of the Irish education infrastructure and, as such, deserving of State support proportional to their respective contributions to this endeavour? Such support would free these organisations from a reliance on sponsorship from the drinks industry and would constitute a practical recognition by the State of their invaluable educational contribution.

Over the years, the Irish legislative system has developed a protocol of tobacco controls that reflects public concerns about this industry. These included a wide range of prohibitions on the advertising and the use of tobacco. To date, the drinks industry has largely escaped this kind of legislative censure. Accordingly, there is little debate in Ireland on the need to dissociate alcohol from sport. Such a process would begin with legislating for sponsorship, promotion and advertising alcohol around sport. Until such a debate begins in Ireland, protestations of concern about alcohol consumption in general and on youth alcohol consumption in particular ring distinctly hollow.