IRELAND'S DRINK PROBLEM

JOHN FEIGHERY, SVD,

JOHN FEIGHERY, SVD,

Sir, - Asked on RTE radio news how she would celebrate her Leaving Certificate results, a student replied that she would "get drunk, very drunk". No doubt she spoke for many of her friends who almost certainly would also smoke a large quantity of cigarettes as a further aid to celebration. So much for many years of public health warnings and the study of civic and religious values!

I find it fascinating that most of these same students would very likely oppose modern waste-disposal facilities in their neighbourhood, although these represent a miniscule threat to their well-being compared with the frequent consumption of their drugs of choice.

Your paper reported that, on the same day that a young woman announced to the nation her intention to get very drunk, 20 of her Leaving Certificate colleagues engaged in a post-drinking brawl that left one of them critically ill. Truly the case for the presence of original sin in humanity seems irrefutable. - Yours, etc.,

READ MORE

JOHN FEIGHERY, SVD,

City Quay,

Dublin 2.