Children who begin drinking at a young age are more at risk of alcohol addiction in later life, writes Sheila Wayman
IT WAS the last day of transition year at a south Dublin school and the pupils wanted to celebrate. Word went out that they would have a party on Killiney beach - where the nearby Dart made it easy to gather.
Jane* (16) and her friend are not regular partygoers but "it was our whole year and we thought we should be there", she recalls two days later.
"We arrived at 8pm. I don't drink and neither does my friend - we were like fish out of water. Everybody was drinking. There was no food, no music, just drink. By 9pm people were passing out."
She knows some of her classmates have been drinking since second year and it became more obvious in third year. Now just finishing fourth year, she reckons she's in the small minority of less than 10 per cent who don't drink. "We stayed to watch, a bit in awe of everything," she says.
She estimates there were at least 80 on the beach at any one time, with people coming and going, some from other schools.
"We didn't know what was going on and we were worried about people we knew. They are not close friends and we didn't want to look after them but felt obliged to. Not fun for anyone.
"We tried to stop people hurting themselves on the rocks. One girl in my class was pretty bad. She couldn't talk and was falling all over the place. We had to hold her up to stop her getting sick, and she wasn't the only one.
"I didn't see any actual violence but there was a lot of aggressive behaviour with people picking on others.
"We stayed until about 10.20pm and it was pretty bad by then. A lot of people passed out, and gardaí came."
She heard that two or three people were taken to hospital by the end of the night, and many had phones, iPods and handbags stolen.
It was the sort of school friends' celebration that happens in parks, woods and beaches all over the country, and sometimes in houses with the blessing of parents.
One mother, whose son is sitting the Leaving cert this week, says her 17 year old met up with other classmates at a friend's house for a "drinks reception" before school on the last day of term.
A Garda spokesman rejects the suggestion that gardaí sometimes turn a blind eye to underage drinkers. "If gardaí come across any kid drinking on the street or on the beach they won't ignore it," he says. "Unfortunately, they are good at finding new and inventive places to drink."
Some 86 per cent of 15-19 year olds questioned for a recent survey had drunk alcohol and the average age at which they started was just 13, according to the findings presented at a conference in UCD on Alcohol and Drug Use in Young People last month.
Trying to delay drinking among teenagers is the aim of a new HSE alcohol awareness campaign. Yet survey results show how awareness is one thing, but the real challenge is getting adults involved in changing youngsters' behaviour.
While 91 per cent of adults agree that underage drinking is a problem, according to research commissioned by the HSE, 50 per cent of those questioned believe there is nothing they can do to stop young people from drinking.
It is only in the past five years that the damage adolescent drinking causes to the brain has been proven by research, says Dr Conor Farren, consultant in addiction psychiatry at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin.
Parents have to give their children a strong message that alcohol will damage their brain. "It's sharp and crude but a very important message, and is what kids have to hear."
The other concern is that the earlier you start drinking, the more likely you are to become addicted. If you start drinking at the age of 12-13, research has shown you are up to nine times more likely to become addicted than if you start drinking at 18-19.
Parents are simply not aware of the repercussions of underage drinking. "When I present some of this information in schools, jaws drop," says Farren.
There's also the increased risk of accidents and physical and sexual assault.
Although children are "super saturated" by positive images of alcohol from the industry, worth more than €6 billion a year in this country, parents are not powerless, he stresses.
The message from a parent that this is "so wrong" does actually go in, even if the child seems to reject it.
In the case of smoking, it has been proven that a parent's constant negative attitude considerably reduces the likelihood of a son or daughter smoking by the age of 21.
Of course, giving the message verbally is one thing - reinforcing it by your own behaviour can be much more difficult when it comes to alcohol.
That is why Dr Joe Barry, public health specialist with the HSE, says the anti-drink message is much more challenging for parents than the anti-heroin message.
Adults are key, he stresses. If they don't change their drinking habits, there is no way the problem of underage drinking is going to improve. "This is what the current population of Ireland has to make a decision on."
Yet the research commissioned by the HSE shows that only 15 per cent of adults believe their own drinking influences the drinking habits of young people around them and just 40 per cent of those questioned would drink less if they thought it would discourage young people around them from drinking alcohol.
Alcohol is with us from birth to the graveyard, points out Rose Tully of the National Parents' Council Post Primary. It is at christenings, first communions, confirmations, weddings and funerals, so it is hardly surprising that children see it as an essential part of any celebration.
"I feel parents tend to shrug their shoulders and say 'he has a hangover for a few hours', nothing worse. But a lot of other difficulties teenagers have start with drink and cigarettes."
She believes parents have lost control of their children and they have to regain that control if things are going to improve.
"I blame that on the fact that in the majority of homes two parents are working and they're coming home exhausted. They buy more material things to compensate. There's also peer pressure, that 'everybody else is doing it'.
"You should set out what you do in your home and not be influenced by others.
"Parents need to use a very simple word, 'no', and that starts at a very young age," she stresses.
"Young people need parameters set and they respond to parameters. If they are not set in the home, who will set them?"
She is also concerned that the trend in recent years for drinking at home, rather than going out to the pub, exposes children more to alcohol and can hide parents' problem drinking from the wider family. Having supplies of alcohol in the home also makes it easier for teenagers to experiment.
"There is nothing wrong with a social drink," adds Tully. "If children see parents drinking responsibly, they will probably follow.
"If they see parents going over the top, they will too. At the end of the day, the example is set by parents."
Jane's parents rarely drink now and she has no wish to.
The end-of-term party two weeks ago has convinced her that she isn't missing out when she listens to classmates boasting about their drink-fuelled escapades.
"I am never going again. That's my first and last time. I'll never believe people again when they say they had a great time at a party.
"Nobody had a great time; half of them could barely speak."
'* Name has been changed to protect her privacy