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THE PIONEER TOTAL Abstinence Association (PTAA) has asked people to not abuse alcohol on St Patrick’s Day.
Speaking at the launch of the PTAA’s nationwide fundraising appeal for 2017 today, Raymond O’Connor, project coordinator of the Pioneers, said: “We want everyone to enjoy our national holiday – a day in which we take pride in being Irish.
“But we know it is also a day that can be marred by the fallout from excessive drinking. So we’re asking those who drink to do so sensibly and in moderation.”
O’Connor said St Patrick’s Day should be a family day, adding: “We want to show our young people that we can enjoy and celebrate as a nation without having to get drunk.”
The PTAA promotes and encourages people to drink in moderation and its own members abstain from drinking alcohol.
Financial appeal
O’Connor said the fundraising appeal is necessary to “ensure the financial viability” of the association both in Ireland and overseas.
The Jesuits have supported the association since its foundation in 1898. From January 2018 onwards, this involvement will cease and the PTAA will operate as a private lay association.
In terms of fundraising, O’Connor said: “Any money we receive from people will help sustain the association in its efforts to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol abuse in our society.”
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I’ll have a few beers on St Patrick’s Day but I do hate to see parents bringing their kids to the pub and sitting there for hours getting drunk while the kids get bored and restless.
@Porterkev: Could be worse. You could bring them to a pioneer association meeting.
My Paddy’s day will start on Wednesday…. hiccup..
I’ll be working :)
Well woopty duppty dooo. All the best to pioneers and everything but i will do it my way which involves a nice few pints during the day and home by 8 before the crazies start appearing
@Porterkev: Roll up to the pub at about 12:30, the children still in scouts uniform/gymnastics gear, the father goes to the bar orders a pint of Guinness, bottle of cider for the missus and 2 bags of Tayto cheese & onion and two bottles of Coca Cola for young Conor & Orla.
Five minutes later you hear young Conor “Dad, can we have a Euro for the pool”, the father is talking about his days playing for Ballygobackwards when he was a teenager as he says to young Conor “Not now, I’ll give ya a game later”.
Half and hour later young Conor & Orla are buzzin’ off the Coke bursting around the place like Gabraselaisse and Radcliffe as the mother and father get pissed.
Typical f$£¥ing Ireland…..
As the picture on Facebook says “Tayto & Coke, the taste of childhood neglect”.
@Tom Collins: I’ve seen the crazies at 8am in the morning on Paddys Day before, let alone 8pm lol.
In my alcohol defence, I’ve done some pretty dumb stuff while sober.
I think some of the comments here show how ridiculous people are stigmatising people who choose not to drink. If people choose not to drink it’s their own choice. Though personally I think the pioneers message if just one that some people just cannot take and that’s why their met with ridicule.
We are the only country who put drink on such a high pedestal and anyone who doesn’t is met with suspicion, we have a serious problem as a nation.
I am fed up with the ridicule. I don’t drink, but I would never let on because of what I have mentioned above.
I don’t drink and I encounter a lot of hassle over it, especially at work, and it makes me sick. Nothing worse than heavy drinkers looking down on non drinkers because apparently the non drinkers have a drink problem.
@Alan Wiley: Peer pressure, If you’re not one of the lads and get drunk? You’re odd, weird and should be avoided. I hardly drink anymore, just the odd one here and there. I don’t miss the hangovers, empty wallets and rich pub owners.
@Alan Wiley: a friend of mine wanted to take me to a doctor when i no longer told him i drank the devils urine. he thought I had lost the plot.
@Stephen murphy: i agree lad , i bearly touch the stuff anymore, an i live looking into my wallet on a monday morning and thinking , lovely to see you MR Cash lol
You believe in the devil… you may need to see someone chief;)
There’s another option. Smoke the Shamrock.
I don;t know if our consumption of alcohol has increased or decreased in the last decade as many are drinking at home, but what I can say with certainty is that public drunkenness is no longer tolerated on the pub scene in city centre pubs. Huge changes have taken place. I travel through cities at night every weekend and there’s way, way less drunk people around than 20 years ago.
It is however still tolerated in country pubs, but the cities have come a long way.
You haven’t been down baggot st on a Friday evening in a while so…
@Alan Brogan: The city has lots of streets. There was a time every street would be full of pissheads falling all over the place walking home at closing time and beyond. It’s better now than at any time I’ve seen in over 30 years.
Used to throw a big party the night before but that was back in the day before kids. Nice to see them enjoy the Parade and have a beer or three when they are in bed. I find non drinkers somethings sumg about their choice. I can take it or leave it whichs I consider a better attitide.
I know a lot of clowns that keep harping on about how they can take it or leave it… funny enough they seem to always take it.. take it or leave it ? They can in their eye.
@Science of beer: maybe consuming this drug thats detrimental to ones health is a sign of weakness?
@alan wiley you are just the type of smug person he was on about
Maybe so, but at least I can admit that I can’t ‘take it or leave it’ .
Ehhhh no we can’t… it’s the 1 day of the year that the world EXPECTS us to be drunk!!! Paddy’s Day without alcohol would be like Christmas without Santa!!!
Doesn’t mean you have to get pissed and rowdy though. Have a few and go home.
@The Ultimate Postman: Paddy’s Day is better sober, and the commercial Santa thing has actually messed up Christmas.
Well I’ll take a drink on St. Patrick’s day and remove myself from the bar before it gets messy with the idiots who drink themselves silly.
Do what u want but do it responsibly. Dont be a munt and hug your mammy in the morning. Better than confession.
Im taking no chancers and nailing myself into the attic
Well of course they can, I wouldn’t expect Pioneers to get drunk, sure that would be against their pledge not to do so. Who cares what they do, we can do as we please.
@Eugene Comaskey: People with an active drink problem often can’t do as they please because they are obsessed with alcohol and that obsession interferes with their freedom to chose.
@Larry Kavanagh; This comment is about Pioneers nothing about people with drink problems.
I usually drink a small sherry and have a feast of caviar and guinea fowl while reciting poetry.
Pioneers lolz
I, for one, would like to say thanks to our drivers/pioneers on this Friday, and every Friday.
waste of money booze
The PTAA must be pissed trying to send out a message like that for paddy’s day lol,, I’ll have a few for all of ye that miss it so much hahaha
P!ssing in the wind springs to mind
Prob. with the Irish isn’t drink. It’s that they frequently don’t know how to drink. So my old dad RIp said to me buying what he fondly imagined was my first pint age 16. Said your first experience with alcohol dictates the rest of your relationship with the drug. Mine was to get rats aged 14 when a friend’s brother was killed in America on a J1. Raided the booze cupboard with my friend trying to reach him through his grief of six weeks waiting for the casket to come home. Always resisted his attempts to get me to break the oul confirmation pledge bringing cans of Club Shandy when we’d go fishing but I’d resist and drink Cavan Cola or whatever. But that was before that crash this was after and I’d heard the sergeant ask the local dentist for the records as was sitting in her waiting room when the news came in so knew it must have been bad. Like many’s another got rats again many times over til got too old for that crack too often. Never saw my dad even tipsy but once. Vailliant 60 year survey into ETOH outcomes amongst Irish- and Italian-American cohorts bears him out. Societies that introduce children and alcohol early but in context of food family and moderation and that do not tolerate public adult drunkenness very well have better outcomes to societies that do the opposite. These are the data make of them what ye will. Me I’m working Paddy’s Day got a ton of email to plough through looking for land mines. Might have a couple on Sat no more than a couple tho. 2 ould.
The start of their annual fundraising campaign? Sure they must be loaded if they abstain from the beer!
Amazing some of the comments here. Why do people feel the need to ridicule something like this?
I’m a Pioneer myself. Maybe people get the impression that we’re against drinking or something like that. Not true. The purpose of the organisation is that the members say a short prayer morning and evening to pray for those who suffer from alcohol addiction. I used to have the odd one but I had epilepsy for years and just found it better not to. I’m grand now but I just don’t see the need to have drink on a night out. I don’t care if other people drink. But I think most people will admit that there’s something wrong if you feel the need to get totally shitfaced to the point of not being able to walk every time you have a night out.
Taught this was Waterford whispers
Working
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