NEWS: The Irish Save Saint Patrick's Day From Being Rethought

CULTURE: The Irish Save Saint Patrick's Day From Being Rethought

Saving the world from retiring countless drunken Irish jokes or rethinking well established stereotypes, the Irish have come forward as the world's leading binge drinkers.

The idea of binge drinking here is a tricky subject. Is it really binge drinking if an Irish bloke goes to the pub after work spends the entirety of the evening there and drinks five drinks in one sitting of five hours? And if this were done regularly wouldn't the Irish binge drinkers develop a tolerance for alcohol which would force the scale of binge drinking to be a sliding one?

Plus, if you're 15 to 24 you have to binge drink. I mean 15 year-olds can't get home from a hard day of pointless education and pop open a cold one and tune out to the news. No you have to do all your drinking in quick bursts while your parents aren't looking and wondering how it reflects on them. Furthermore, college students are studying hard and thus are forced to do the entirety of their drinking in one night on the weekend, because the generation which preceded us ruined all jobs and significantly increased the length of the work week such that the only way to earn a decent salary is to sacrifice your entire life with the sole consolation being the occasional night of serious drinking.

All I am saying is that I think the Finns need to get with it.

In light of this, Saint Patrick's Day is saved, and thousands of Americans can celebrate by getting completely soused knowing that that's how Ireland would want their most famous Saint to be honored.

Happy St. Pattys Day

i would like to thank who ever created this celebritory occasion for me to become a statistic as i am irish, in college, and in between the ages of 18 & 24

I want everyone to know I will be binge drinking several hours tomorrow!

I read it. I didn't understand it. I've already started drinking. I'll sober up to drive somewhere tomorrow, then start drinking again.

What defines a sitting? I mean, hell, according to some study I'm a heavy drinker cause I have five or more drinks in a sitting more then twice a month. That's not a heavy drinker, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, but college students hardly have to do all their drinking on one night. As the only teetotaler in this building I can assure you that it isn't true. Here, at least. As an American I'm incapable of imagining how people live in other places.

How about if you only drink 4 drinks but each one is a double?

I like the way you think

now that's what i'm talking about! that's some cunning irish logic there.


now everybody get fucking pissed.

oh, is it still only one drink if you take it straight from the keg?
cuz i'll be drinking a pony keg of guiness later.

First of all, you aren't Irish unless you were born and raised in Ireland. Sorry my fellow Americans, but you are just Americans. Get used to it.

Second. How the hell is 5 drinks considered binge drinking? Dear god, even the self confessed lightweights can polish off a six pack before they pass out.

You must not know many Irish-Americans, my friend. If you did, you'd know we are DAMN proud of our heritage and love that island just as much as any person born on it's soil. We're Irish, we just weren't fortunate enough to be born there >.<

i guess its a case of the grass looking greener on the other side of the atlantic ocean...i've never seen the appeal that ireland holds you guys...but then again any time im over in the US or canada i dont want to come home...

as for drinking...for them to say 5 drinks is binge drinking is ridiculous....i mean everyone enjoys a quick pint and leaving it at that but when youre out for the night 5 drinks wont get you very far....at all!!

So true! And I guess binge drinking is just drinking more than is good for your body, not drinking more than you consider to be a lot.
And there is going to be A LOT of binge drinking here today.

I've drank in Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, and Spain.

and in my experience, the English are the worst "binge" drinkers. While the Irish have the highest tolerance and drink the most without getting stupid. The English and Irish are both well ahead of the Germans when it comes to volume of alcohol consumed though. I was quite disappointed with German drinking habits.

They really did some kind of timeframe for their study.. 5 in an hour and I'll be tipsy for a little while.. 5 in a night and I'll feel thirsty more than anything..

4 out of 5 are liars then. If you ain't gonna have a 6, why start even drinking at that age?

Yeah, 5 drinks is binge drinking for a little girl, maybe...

I thought the definition of binge drinking was "lots of drinks in one sitting...quickly". I'm very much a lightweight, but in the course of a day (12 hours) of celebrating I could easily have 5 beers and not be tripping-over-myself stupid.

And thank you Ms_Magdalena- My Papa's parents were born and raised in Ireland, had him when they moved to America, and he was very proud of where he came from, as am I.

Thank you for not letting me down, Ireland!

Just for you, Oh Emerald Isle, I've got a six pack of Guinness chilling for tonight's festivities.

Good one! Hell, a good chunk of the people I knew at my previous little, midwestern, conservative liberal arts school made sure to have no classes on Fridays, so the weekend started Thursday afternoon.

It's weird how only Americans really do that--claim identity from countries they've never lived in. That might be your family heritage somewhere along the line, but it sure as hell isn't your nationality. I didn't realize how weird it sounded for me to run around claiming to be Irish or German or whatever until I actually left America and realized how American I am.

Which, you know, isn't surprising, considering that America is where I'm from.


On topic, I don't consider it binge drinking unless I puke. This "five drinks in one sitting" stuff is bullshit. If I ain't yacking, it ain't binge drinking--it's just drinking.

Fuckin' right. It's times like these I don't mind being a steriotype.

A conservative liberal arts school, eh?

Of course I know that the "liberal" in "liberal arts" doesn't mean politically liberal, but the small, private liberal arts colleges usually seem to be quite politically liberal in my experience. I'm curious about the conservative one.

I've perceived that similar things happen in England, France, etc. But mostly when the person is a different color. They consider themselves as much Pakistani/Indian/African etc. as they do English/French/etc. Though maybe that's a misconception on my part.

Also, it's no surprise, considering much of America is comprised of the descendants of poor immigrants looking for an opportunity. They get to America, and where do they go? To the neighborhood of their countrymen, where they can reconnect with their family/friends (who are more likely to give them jobs), speak their own language, buy their own kind of food, and so on. Thus reinforcing the ethnic segregation in America, and emphasizing ethnic identification.

There're more than you think. Especially in rural Ohio. Also, that one I'm referring to is religiously affiliated. The Brethren Church. They had both a weekly anti-war protest and anti-anti-war protest on opposite corners of the street. (This, despite the Brethren Church's stance of pacifism.)