Parents facilitating a 16-year-old's ‘prinks' is a sign of our weird relationship with alcohol
The unforeseen consequence is that more people now realise that
alcohol is a class one carcinogen
, in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.
If your reaction to that statement was either to flinch or roll your eyes, welcome to Ireland, where our relationship with alcohol is as convoluted and as hard to uproot as bindweed. Our per capita intake may not be the worst in Europe and it is true that it is falling, but our addiction to binge drinking means that our health is still getting hammered.
British travel writer and entrepreneur Dan Kieran once wrote a
perceptive piece likening alcohol to a shared ritual
, with an unspoken agreement that it is a good thing and part of who we are. He may as well have been taking about Ireland.
READ MORE
He described some people's tacit reaction to his decision to drink only on rare occasions, which amounted to, 'It's nice to see you and I'm in a good mood and there are lots of things worrying me at the moment [that] drinking allows me to forget briefly. Please don't suggest I have a dependency problem and ruin it for me.'
Our relationship with alcohol starts early. A friend describes being astonished that parents she knows feel the need to facilitate their 16-year-olds' 'prinks' – pre-drinking, as in drinking alcohol at home before going out – as though access to alcopops is a human rights issue.
Evidence from UK-based drinks market analyst IWSR suggests that even Gen Z, formerly seen as abstemious, are starting to consume more alcohol.
IWSR sees it as positive that Gen Z are displaying 'a greater willingness to explore and maintain wider repertoires among multiple drink categories; above-average engagement with spirits; [and] a more relaxed stance on sustained moderation'.
Tánaiste
Simon Harris
a former champion of health labels, now
supports delaying introduction of health labelling
for years.
There may be concerns about unforeseen consequences, including pushing young people towards cocaine if alcohol use is reduced because of price increases. The cost of a gramme of cocaine is about €70, while a pint hovers somewhere between €6 and €7.
[
Delay on health labelling on alcohol comes amid uncertain trading environment
Opens in new window
]
But it's often not one or the other. Very few people snort their first line of coke while stone cold sober. A 2019 Health Research Board study shows that alcohol was consumed in 85 per cent of first uses of cocaine. Alcohol is a gateway drug to cocaine, and taking cocaine enables people to drink more. We have such a weird relationship with alcohol that we would prefer to worry about cocaine use going up, rather than face the fact that most people's drug of choice is alcohol.
Heavy-handed tactics by Big Alcohol backfired in Yukon, Canada, in 2017. Yukon, like Ireland, has high rates of binge-drinking and health-related harms like cancer. The Yukon government is directly involved in the sale of alcohol. Researchers saw tiny Yukon as an ideal location to conduct an eight-month real-world experiment on the impact of health warning labels. Bright yellow labels were affixed to alcohol in the government liquor store in Whitehorse, the capital.
The experiment was axed within a month after ferocious industry pressure. Emails obtained under freedom of information showed that industry leaders claimed the assertion ''alcohol can cause cancer' is a false and misleading statement'; one called the cancer-warning label 'alarmist and misleading'. The relentless lobbying to drop the labels in Yukon only focused attention on the reasons behind the resistance.
In 2018, when the legislation regarding labelling was being introduced in Ireland, some industry members
compared the carcinogenic effect of alcohol
to that of burnt toast.
Drinkaware, which is funded by the alcohol industry, runs soulful ads featuring hip-hop artist Nealo, urging us to embrace mindful drinking. Meanwhile, the alcohol industry opposes all regulation that limits the availability, price and promotion of alcohol.
[
Drinks Ireland warned Taoiseach that alcohol health labelling plans seen as 'trade barrier' by US
Opens in new window
]
Alcohol is responsible for four deaths every day in Ireland and causes more than 200 types of illnesses and injuries, including seven common deadly cancers, fatal liver disease, and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. One in 13 cases of breast cancer is directly related to alcohol consumption. Worryingly, most people who are aware of the link think it is
just heavy drinking
that is problematic.
Saving lives by challenging a culture reinforced daily by a powerful global lobby requires courage. There will never be a good time to introduce labelling. There will always be an economic crisis or a powerful lobby that will be displeased. We were on the verge of doing something as revolutionary as the smoking ban, and we chickened out.
Have your say: What do you think of 16-year-olds drinking alcohol? Would you let your own teens drink at home? Tell us below
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
3 hours ago
- Sunday World
Women using cocaine as ‘low fat alternative' to alcohol sees sharp rise in drug use
'loophole' | 'There's a lot more stigma and shame for women entering treatment' . According to the Rutland Centre rehab clinic's 2024 annual report, a 'growing national crisis' has evolved through the use of cocaine in this country. While children are storing cocaine in their school lockers, the centre's head of clinical services, Emma Kavanagh, described how young women feel like cocaine will not impede their weight-loss journeys or progress in the gym. 'If they were to use alcohol, it would negatively affect those things,' she also told 'So, cocaine is nearly kind of a loophole to get a buzz without having to ingest additional calories.' . News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, July 29 Cocaine accounted for 23 pre cent of all admissions last year to the private rehab clinic, the new figures reveal. This is up from 17 per cent in 2023 and is 'one of the sharpest single-year increases the Rutland Centre has recorded for any substance', the Dublin-based centre warned. Rutland CEO Meave Mullany told RTÉ Radio how women traditionally face more barriers to entering treatment than men. 'There's a lot more stigma and shame for women entering treatment,' she said. 'There's a lot more considerations around childcare, around family life, so they tend not to come forward for treatment as frequently or as often as men do. Ms Mullany said according to people coming in for treatment cocaine is 'literally everywhere'. 'It's in the lockers, it's in school, it's after sport,' she said. 'We even hear from clients coming into treatment that there's an app that people can use to order it by drones,' she remarked. In response to this crisis, the centre has announced plans to open a dedicated inpatient detox unit later this year. Read more More than 200 people received intensive treatment through Rutland's residential and outpatient programmes in 2024, as staff answered more than 16,800 calls and facilitated over 11,000 aftercare attendances. According to the Health Research Board's latest drug treatment figures, cocaine is now the most common problem drug among new treatment cases, accounting for over 30% of all new presentations, and overtaking cannabis for the first time. Men made up two-thirds (66 per cent) of those treated at the Rutland Centre in 2024, with women accounting for 34 per cent. The age group with the most people seeking help was those aged 25 to 44, who represent more than half of all clients. 'These figures highlight the age and gender realities of addiction in Ireland today, with younger adults and men continuing to face particularly acute risks,' the facility said in a statement. The Rutland report also revealed that 94 per cent of residential clients completed the full treatment programme, while 89per cent of those who moved into aftercare remained in active recovery. Many former clients attribute Rutland their life-changing recovery to the Rutland with one former client, Chris, saying that when he arrived four years ago, he was 'completely broken'. 'The 35 days in the house was the hardest of my life. I finally had to face me. 'Now I look back and recovery hasn't just been about sobriety, it's about growing up and reconnecting with the people I love.' He added: 'Halfway through, I wanted to leave, I wanted to run – but that same night something clicked, no one else was going to do this for me. I needed to show up for myself. What's happened since still blows my mind.'
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
Fertility treatment and the workplace: ‘It's a hugely personal thing to have to say'
One thing Tammy Murphy did not have to worry about when she and her partner were undergoing assisted reproduction treatment was the need to keep it a secret from her employer. A naturally open person, she did not hesitate to tell her manager and colleagues. In return, she got all the flexibility and understanding she needed over the three rounds of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) that it took before her partner, Leanne Doyle, gave birth to their son, Theo, two years ago. On their first attempt, the embryos did not implant; after the second round, she had a miscarriage at 10 weeks. Murphy's employer, the recruitment company Flexsource, which is part of the CPL group, has since incorporated fertility treatment supports into its 'family building' policies. Five days' leave per year is available for the person physically undergoing the treatment and two days for the supporting partner. However, recently published research would suggest that employers making specific provisions are still in the minority in Ireland. This is despite one in six adults, according to the World Health Organisation, experiencing infertility, which is defined as a failure to conceive after at least 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse. READ MORE About 80 per cent of people who had undergone IVF said their workplace did not have a fertility policy, according to a Sims IVF survey. Almost all respondents (98 per cent) agreed that treatment had an impact on their emotional wellbeing at work, while 83 per cent said it affected their ability to fulfil their work responsibilities. At support meetings organised by the National Infertility Support and Information Group (NISIG), people often talk about the workplace as being one of the biggest challenges when they are undergoing fertility treatment, says NISIG spokeswoman Caitríona Fitzpatrick. Fertility treatment involves multiple appointments, sometimes at short notice. In the absence of flexibility or dedicated time off, 'people use annual leave or sick leave and it's really neither of those things', she says. They can feel quite unwell after some of the appointments, particularly egg retrieval. Emotionally they might not feel connected to the workplace at that time, she points out. Yet employees often struggle in silence, maybe because they perceive it to be a taboo topic, or they fear that declaring they are trying to start a family may harm their career progression. But keeping it secret not only adds to the stress but also runs the risk that altered behaviour in the workplace may be wrongly interpreted, again to their detriment. NISIG believes that workplace awareness of fertility issues and a policy to support those having treatment is good for employees and employers alike. It welcomes a new guide for Irish companies produced by Sims IVF, entitled Navigating Fertility Treatment in the Workplace. It's just a hugely personal thing to have to say. It's not a conversation you want to be having until you're ready, and you're in a place where you can do it — NISIG spokeswoman Caitríona Fitzpatrick Sims IVF is one of the approved providers in the HSE IVF funding scheme that was launched in September 2023. Currently, heterosexual couples who meet the required criteria are entitled to one free cycle of IVF – or ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ie sperm is injected directly into an egg), or up to three rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination) treatment. At the end of June, eligibility for this scheme was extended to couples experiencing 'secondary infertility' , ie having difficulty conceiving a second child. However, there is no statutory entitlement to time off work during what is known to be both a physically and psychologically demanding and complex process. 'It is absolutely perverse,' Labour TD Ged Nash told the Dáil in January 2024, 'that we have correctly decided funded IVF is a public good, yet access could be restricted to those who can work flexibly, unless a statutory right to leave to access it is introduced.' He was speaking on a Labour Party Bill that seeks to give workers the right to leave for fertility treatment as well as early pregnancy loss. It is hardly surprising that the impetus for the Bill came from a workplace predominated by women and where flexibility and short-notice leave is particularly challenging – primary schools. Representations from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation prompted the current Labour leader Ivana Bacik , then a senator, to introduce the Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021. Last month, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, when asked by Laois TD William Aird if she would support the implementation of that Bill, simply referred to ongoing research on relevant issues, adding: 'Family leave provisions are kept under review to ensure that they are appropriate to the needs of working parents.' Since the start of the HSE's assisted human reproduction treatments (AHR) scheme , there has been an average of 500 referrals per month to the six public regional fertility hubs. Many of these patients can be managed successfully at the hubs via a range of surgical and/or medical interventions and do not require further advanced tertiary treatment such as IVF. In 2024, the hubs made a total of 1,470 referrals to one of the eight HSE-authorised AHR providers. This year, 911 referrals had been made up to July 7th, according to the HSE. Tammy Murphy and Leanne Doyle with their two-year-old son Theo. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill A review of the first 12 months of the scheme (September 2023 to August 2024), found 262 clinical pregnancies were reported by the HSE's fertility hubs. A further 79 couples were discharged with a clinical pregnancy from one of the private AHR providers contracted by the HSE. [ Eight healthy babies born in UK after IVF using DNA from three people Opens in new window ] 'It is important to note that relatively few couples had been discharged from a private provider by the end of August 2024, with most of the referred couples still undergoing investigation or treatment,' an HSE spokeswoman adds. 'While it is too soon to have meaningful data, the initial results from the service are in line with expectations.' Although there is undoubtedly much more openness around assisted reproduction, people still experience stigma, says Fitzpatrick. 'A lot of it is a self-stigma, in that they've kind of judged themselves. All that feeds into an emotional toll,' she says. People are much more likely to talk about it after they have been successful. 'If it's unsuccessful, or you're going through it, is where people keep it very quiet because I suppose they don't want to build up any kind of expectations and they're still only getting their heads around how to explain what they're doing.' They may also worry that the mere mention of fertility treatment might have an employer's mind jumping forward to the need for maternity leave, as hypothetical as it might be at that stage. At a time when a couple or individual may be investing thousands of euro in private fertility treatment, she says, the fear that they may be passed over for promotion or, say, leadership on a project, 'just compounds all this emotional stress'. NISIG spokeswoman Caitríona Fitzpatrick 'It's just a hugely personal thing to have to say. It's not a conversation you want to be having until you're ready, and you're in a place where you can do it.' Availing of a workplace policy would require a privacy trade-off, with disclosure at some level, but a clearly flagged and supportive path when doing this would help. Fitzpatrick says people would not need to indicate exactly where they were in the process. There are also challenges for employers in addressing these matters, including accommodating a need for time off at short notice, depending on the nature of the work. 'I think knowledge is power,' says Fitzpatrick. 'If they get to know this area, then they can work with their employees on it. As with lots of other areas like this, if an employee feels supported they become very loyal to that employer and it's very hard to put a price on that.' NISIG sees people who have left their jobs while undergoing treatment because they felt it was too stressful. 'Or they would take a sabbatical because they could not deal with that other pressure in the background and what they felt was a total lack of understanding.' Some really good, proactive employers, she says, ask NISIG to talk their HR department through what assisted reproduction involves and its impact on patients. They use that information to inform their own workplace policies. NISIG would like to see the provision of designated leave led by legislation but, in the meantime, hopes that 'a serious number' of employers will take the need on board 'so that it becomes the norm' to have guidance in the workplace. [ Ireland far behind other countries for IVF genetic testing, doctors and advocates say Opens in new window ] 'Lots of employees will check the maternity policy before they start a family; if they're going to start medical treatment, they will look at different policies. It should be the same for fertility treatment.' Then individuals and couples 'can make their decisions based around knowing', Fitzpatrick adds, 'as opposed to being halfway through their treatment and suddenly feeling like, 'I'm going to have to tell somebody,' and it complicates the whole thing.' The HR manager at Sims IVF, Niamh Doran, wrote the new guide for employers and fellow HR professionals, drawing on real-life experiences of clients, gathered by last year's survey, to highlight the challenges and offer possible solutions. Fostering open communication is key, she suggests, as is employees being able to trust their line manager or HR team to be understanding. 'It's just going to make people feel less like they're being watched. They won't feel like it's going to stunt their career growth, which I think is the number one concern, particularly for women,' Doran says. The guide includes a fertility policy template for companies to follow when creating their own policies. 'If there's not those examples out there, it's hard to know where to start. We're hoping that this is a jumping off point and people can then tailor it to their business needs.' Ibec declined to comment on issues raised in this article. Employee voices on fertility treatment and the workplace: 'I was told it was likely to not work and [will] have to keep trying, so how am I going to manage so it won't impact on my work?' 'Empathy drastically dropped after the first two rounds. My boss actually rolled his eyes when I said I was doing the fourth round.' 'I can see my employer is already trying to recruit for my role in case I go on maternity leave. This makes me uncomfortable as, depending how my treatment goes, I may never go on maternity leave.' 'I received support from my direct manager; the company overall did not know I was undergoing treatment. There is a need for flexibility around appointments, understanding around absence and general awareness of what the process is.' 'I haven't told them as I feel my team lead won't be happy with it and that might damage the relationship.' 'My management were helpful, but certified IVF pay would have been amazing as you have to use your own sick pay for days off and treatments.' '[I would have appreciated] greater understanding that there can be several appointments to attend and be flexible around this, ie allow an hour to attend a scan without having to take annual leave.' Source: 2004 Sims IVF survey
Irish Examiner
11 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
When you're in perimenopause and have a newborn baby at the same time
After Dublin mother of one Lorraine Heffernan had her daughter, Ava, now three, at the age of 45, she didn't think about perimenopause. 'I thought there's no way I could be menopausal,' Lorraine says. 'I've just had a baby. That's years down the line.' Yet, by the time Ava was two, Lorraine's hormones were 'all over the place', though she was out of the new-baby phase. Her mood was not as good as it should have been. 'I wasn't feeling as energetic or upbeat as I normally would. Ava has been a great sleeper since very young, so why was I feeling more tired than usual when I was sleeping well?' Through research, conversations with friends, and the launch of a menopause policy in her Dublin City University workplace, the Stepaside-based mother realised she was most likely in perimenopause. Lorraine Heffernan: "I thought there's no way I could be menopausal, I've just had a baby, that's years down the line." Picture: Gareth Chaney Lorraine came forward for interview for this feature after menopause workplace consultant Catherine O'Keeffe put out a call on her network for women prepared to talk about being in perimenopause soon after having a baby. Within days, 20 women had responded. 'It's a big challenge for a lot of women,' says O'Keeffe. 'Starting a family is happening later. And a lot of women are starting to feel perimenopausal before the average age of 45.' Catherine O'Keeffe of the Menopause Summit Fiona Buckley, 44, a Dublin-based empowerment coach and keynote speaker, began having what she now knows were perimenopausal symptoms about a year after having her daughter, Sadie, seven. She attributed the tiredness and brain fog to the postpartum phase. But the symptoms never went away. 'My GP and friends who'd had babies said 12 months postpartum these should be going away, but they weren't. They were only getting compounded, new ones being added on. That's how I knew.' Fiona Buckley began having what she now knows were perimenopausal symptoms about a year after having her daughter, Sadie, seven. She attributed the tiredness and brain fog to the postpartum phase. But the symptoms never went away. Initial misdiagnosis Emily Collins who got her first symptom of menopause at the age of 36 when her second daughter was six months old. Picture: Moya Nolan Emily Collins, mother to Ava, seven, and Niamh, five, was 36 when she attended the GP with her first symptom, six months after giving birth. Her usual GP was away and the male replacement attributed what she was experiencing to thrush. 'We never thought it was menopause, because I had a six-month-old. I was treated for thrush — it went on for nine months.' 'Between life, lockdown at the time, and children, I just ignored it. My second symptom came in summer 2021, just after I'd had the covid vaccine: Very heavy periods. I'd heard that the vaccine could cause changes to the menstrual cycle.' But by October, sweat dripping off her as she packed to go home to Wicklow after a visit to her parents' house in Clare, realisation dawned for Emily. 'My cousin, 10 years older than me, is a big menopause advocate. She'd just started her menopause journey and was very vocal about symptoms. I began to put two and two together: Maybe there's another reason I'm sweating and anxious, have heavy periods, and extreme tiredness. Maybe it's not just having a newborn.' Discovering that her mother had been 'in the throes' of menopause at 43, Emily says: 'But when did her first symptom start?' A visit to her own GP brought some relief. 'She sent me for blood tests. They were normal, but because of my symptoms she wasn't convinced I wasn't in menopause.' A stint on the Mirena coil didn't help. An oestrogen patch brought a better result. 'Within three weeks, I wasn't sweating to the same level. I wasn't anxious or tired and it just got progressively better.' Confusing symptoms At her Ashe St Clinic in Tralee, Dr Karen Soffe, GP with an interest in women's health and specialist with the British Menopause Society, has seen women who were in perimenopause soon after they had a baby. A few issues are at play. 'Women are having babies later and, therefore, the gap between their postnatal period and the start of perimenopause can overlap, making it difficult for women to realise what's going on.' In addition, some of the symptoms — fatigue, low mood, lack of sleep, and brain fog — can be put down to 'baby blues' or 'baby brain' and be misdiagnosed. Deciding whether 'this is post-natal depression, perimenopause, or just having a new baby can be a very big challenge', says Lorraine. 'I don't know if you'd know where one starts and the other finishes.' Recalling her return to work when Ava was seven months, she says: 'Going into a room, I'd be saying, 'What have I come in here for? I can't remember'. Remembering people's names, the title of something, my mind would go blank. And I'd be thinking, 'Is it baby brain or brain fog?' Now I'm realising it was a bit of both. 'Any mum will be anxious with a new baby: You're on high alert. Anxiety symptoms are heightened in perimenopause: Waking up in the middle of the night, your mind racing, finding it hard to go to sleep. If you're irritable or snappy, is it because you've a very active, strong-willed, fabulous little girl who's trying and testing you, or is it because your hormones are acting erratically?' Recalling the succession of symptoms, Fiona says: 'One minute, you're trying for a baby, then you've had the baby, and then you have all these symptoms coming at you in force. First, I thought it was part of being a new mom, just motherhood. I didn't put it down to perimenopause.' Whether 'it's my body settling down after having a baby, or I've gone full throttle into menopause' is a cloudy area, says O'Keeffe. 'If you are in perimenopause, unless you have a good doctor you'll probably spend a while thinking 'Am I going mad?'' Emily feels fortunate her doctor listened to her. 'She didn't say, 'Look, the bloods indicate there's nothing going on'.' But Fiona says women don't always respond optimally to other women who are wondering if, post-birth, they're in perimenopause. 'A lot shut me down. They said, 'Oh, you're not, you're just tired after having a baby'. Women can do that to each other, fob each other off. It made me question myself a lot.' As a woman in her mid-40s having her first baby, Lorraine feels that more health-service awareness of her life stage would have helped. 'Nobody said, 'You're at a certain age now, perimenopause might be kicking in'. Nothing like that was ever mentioned, not even at the check-ups. The community health nurse would ask 'How are you feeling, how's your mood?' There was no mention of perimenopause. I think it's another piece of information to make women aware of.' Two times of life colliding Unsurprisingly, perimenopause can make new motherhood even more challenging than it already is. One symptom that Emily says really upset her, prior to getting good treatment, was the anger she would sometimes feel: 'The girls were two and four when I was going through that, and something as simple as them taking a while to put on their shoes going out, I'd get cross about, and there was no need to get cross like that. I think it impacted the relationship I had with them. And it was because I wasn't myself.' Lorraine says being a mother and having perimenopause is two conflicting elements in one. 'You're striving to be the best mom you can be. You don't want to be reacting in certain ways. You want to have a certain tolerance threshold, regardless of what timeframe your body clock is working to.' Fiona took a while to accept that perimenopause came so soon after her baby. 'It feels like you have two stages of life overlapping. You're trying to enjoy your baby and you're hit with a complete other stage of life. It feels like you've been fast-forwarded and you're trying to slow it down.' Soffe says that perimenopause, at the best of times, coincides with a stressful phase of most women's lives, what with elderly parents, career pressures, teenagers, and financial worries. 'Perimenopause can make women struggle with mood, anxiety, multi-tasking, or juggling all the things they previously managed with ease. Adding a new baby or toddler in to the mix can be overwhelming.'
