Azizi,

Just to put it into perspective:

Rather than thinking of them as a nation of alcoholics, it might be more accurate to say that the relaxed Irish attitue about beer parallels the relaxed attitude the French have about wine.

Ex: A book on brehon law I owned once -- the brehons, or lawgivers, working in conjunction with the bárds (poet-historians) and the druids (priests), are what kept the culture of ancient Irish civilization going -- contains some interesting laws that were once in effect on the island.

One prescribes the "legal" amount that responsible people of various professions (doctors, priests) are allowed to drink with a meal, so it won't interfere with their work.

IIRC, the respective limits were six and eight glasses of beer. :o Which, unless you're drinking from egg-cups, is enough to knock most people I know flat!

And while it's true that the pub-scene's a huge part of Irish culture, one could make a good argument that the draw of the pub is only partially the drink, and more what they call the craic -- i.e., shooting the breeze, palling around and generally being sociable.

Slán,

~Fionn

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