Dare they outlaw ‘the craic’?
07/12/2015
I drank a little more than I intended on Friday night and ended up watching the music shows on BBC4 into the larger small hours, a classic consequence of mild intoxication already documented by my insightful academic acquaintance Will Haydock*.
It was far from a terrible consequence, carrying me back as it did to the heyday of 10CC and telling me lots of things I didn’t know about one of my favourite bands of the 1970s, as well as confirming my good taste.
Anyway, I’d stayed longer than usual in one of my local pubs because of what the Irish call ‘the craic’: all sorts of people I knew and didn’t know dropping in, against a background of more songs that took me back to my distant youth plus, of course, a drinkable pint of Harvey’s.
It was without doubt a good night, and I was fine the next morning, too. I might have been feeling a bit knackered by Saturday night but if I was inclined to carrying out cost-benefit analyses I’d say I was well up.
I tell you this rather ordinary tale because it appears the Irish government itself is turning against the craic. A new Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, due to come out before Christmas, wants to ban scenes of people enjoying themselves in pubs from alcohol advertising. Only product shots will be allowed.
The aim is to ‘de-glamorise’ drinking, about which I’ll make two points.
Firstly, alcohol consumption in Ireland has fallen even faster than in the UK, down 25% since it peaked in 2001, so if they’re thinking to make people drink less they’re pushing at an open door.
Secondly, there is the argument that if you’re going to drink it’s much better to do it socially, in a pub, since there’s a kind of natural policing of behaviour going on, and there are community benefits to boot.
Recent ad campaigns in the UK, such as the generic There’s A Beer For That and the new ones from Greene King, actively promote the pub as a site for all sorts of good things, with drinking at the centre.
Is this glamorising alcohol? Or is it simply reflecting a genuine experience of what drinking down the pub can be like?
Sometimes I think we can overdo the goodness of pubs, much as I love them. It’s not always like that. But when it’s good, when all the elements of a great night out click into place, oiled along by a pint or three, there’s nothing beats it.
And trying to ignore that is not going to change anything.
*www.twitter.com/WilliamHaydock