Captain Birdseye, I think you're wrong about driving in Ireland while under the influence of drugs.

Here's what Ireland's 1994 Road Traffic Act has to say before it even gets on to the issue of breathalysers.

'A person shall not drive or attempt to drive a mechanically propelled vehicle in a public place while he is under the influence of an intoxicant to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle. In this subsection 'intoxicant' includes alcohol and drugs and any combination of drugs or of drugs and alcohol.'

In other words, a driver can be nicked by the Gardaí if they deem said driver to be incapable because of ingestion of alcohol or drugs (and the Act does not define whether said drugs might be purchased in pharmacies, prescribed or proscribed). And, in terms of alcohol, one can be considered 'incapable' even if below the legal limit.

Indeed, Ireland's 'road statistics are bad' and speeding is the main cause of fatalities, but the majority of these occur in conurbations when people are busting the 50 or 60kph limit, not in rural areas.

Your suggestion that Ireland should not reduce its breathalyser levels until 'they have provided a proper infrastructure of public transport' is ambitious, but unlikely to succeed. Unless there's evidence of the need for such services (which, for instance, resulted in the Letterkenny-Ballybofey night bus) and/or potential profit for bus companies then they just won't happen.

Your part of rural Ireland must be different because, on my travels, I've never found anywhere in the country where it was impossible to book a taxi late at night.

Lastly, you make the huge assumption that violence in the home is always instigated by the man against the woman. There are many battered husbands in Ireland! I'm glad to say that I'm not one myself.