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Irish people will drink more tonight than any other night of the year

Tonight is the biggest drinking night of the year. It is the Friday before Christmas, and consump...
Newstalk
Newstalk

08.27 19 Dec 2014


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Irish people will drink more t...

Irish people will drink more tonight than any other night of the year

Newstalk
Newstalk

08.27 19 Dec 2014


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Tonight is the biggest drinking night of the year. It is the Friday before Christmas, and consumption of alcohol will rise 114% tonight compared with your average Friday.

Irish people drank 38 million litres of pure alcohol last year - with beer most popular, followed by wine, spirits and cider.

The average person drank more than 10 litres of pure alcohol last year.

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Public health officials are urging people to have a dry January to make up for the excess of the Christmas season.

Alcohol Action Ireland says more than half of 18-75 year old drinkers were classified as harmful drinkers, while 75% of all alcohol consumed in Ireland in 2013 was done so as part of a binge drinking session.

It finds that almost two thirds of 18-24 year old drinkers consume six or more standard drinks on a typical drinking session.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) global status report on alcohol and health for 2014 found that 39% of all Irish people aged 15 years and over had engaged in binge drinking, or "heavy episodic drinking", in the past 30 days.

This puts Ireland just behind Austria at the top of the 194 countries studied and well ahead of our neighbours in Britain.

When the 19% of non-drinkers in Ireland were excluded by the WHO, it found that almost two thirds of Irish men and one third of Irish women who drink alcohol had engaged in binge drinking in the previous month - almost half of all drinkers.


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