Irish bishop suggests people give up booze for Lent

Dublin’s auxiliary bishop has suggested that people give up alcohol for Lent, or at least cut down on their intake.

Bishop Éamonn Walsh said this would make sense from both health and economic perspectives and would give “the body a rest”.

The bishop suggested money saved might be donated to institutions which help people with addiction.

It would be a good idea for those who give up alcohol for Lent or reduce intake to do so with a friend, he said, for support, “like going for a run”.

The Irish Times reported Bishop Walsh expressing concern at attitudes to drink generally.

Rather than merely social drinking, nowadays people were just “getting out of it”, he said.

He also addressed the issue of below-cost selling.

He recognised that not all who wanted a minimum price for alcohol did so for the same motives.

But he recalled the story of a man who told him he couldn’t afford heroin one day, so he bought three bottles of vodka instead.

The bishop noted how, when the price of whiskey was increased in the 1990s, its consumption went down.

Where sponsorship by drink companies of sporting events was concerned, his primary concern was with the influence on young people.

“They associate it with their heroes . . . it influences their behaviour.”

Bishop Walsh said he wants to see the link between sport and alcohol cut.

He said he noticed drink ads in the Aviva Stadium during a recent Ireland-France rugby game.

According to the Irish Alcohol Action charity, one in four deaths of men aged 15-39 in Ireland is due to alcohol.

The charity also cited a study which found 80 per cent of pregnant women surveyed in Cork drank alcohol at some point in their pregnancy.

The study, published in 2013 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, found the Irish percentage for abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy significantly lower than that in centres in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

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