Liberalised licensing laws have changed us in to a nation of clubbers taking high-energy drinks with triple vodkas who don't know when to stop, writes Kathryn Holmquist
The streets at night are full of drunken 18- to 25-year-olds beating up other 18- to 25-year- olds. There's a feeling of threat, and you look over your shoulder. Blame the parents, some say. Realistically, it may be too late for parents to do anything about it - or is it?
Violent, alcohol-driven behaviour begins many years earlier, when parents have had a chance to intervene. When one in 20 15-year-olds is drinking to get drunk 10 times a month or more, you've got to ask who is giving the money to them and why isn't anybody noticing the hangovers? These 15-year-olds pass out or end up in A&E suffering from a mixture of booze and Ecstasy.
Irish children are starting to drink at the age of 14 and younger. Research shows you are 10 times more likely to have a problem with alcohol if you drink in your teen years, than if you delay drinking until the age of 21, says Steven Rowan, director of the Rutland Centre and a member of the Department of Health's Strategic Task Force on Alcohol.
Many violent drinkers have a history of drinking and family abuse. "Joe" is three years sober and has just finished serving a four-year prison sentence for burning down the home where he lived with his wife and eight children. From the age of 15, he was drinking heavily, and so were his seven brothers.
Behaving in a threatening manner was his defence against a childhood with two alcoholic parents. "When I went out to clubs, a good row finished off the night. We would never walk away from a fight, but it's even worse today, where you see seven or eight fellas going down the road looking for someone to beat up," he says.
Rowan says, "A lot of young people have hurt deep inside that comes out in random violence." Alcohol puts the governor mechanisms of the brain to sleep and releases repressed anger. "We want to lash out at people who have hurt us, but something has stopped us, so when we get drunk we lash out at strangers," he says.
However, not everyone who attacks strangers has a traumatic past. Caring parents in stable homes can also have teenagers who drink illegally under the age of 18 and get into fights. "An awful lot of parents say, 'thank God it's not drugs' but it's actually alcohol that causes more harm and more deaths," says Rowan.
Gardaí advise parents of children who get into trouble as a result of alcohol to keep a channel of communication open and not cut the children off completely. "You can't tie your child down and prevent drinking, just hope he doesn't get any convictions and by age 22-23 he'll come out of it," Sgt Murphy says.
An arrest can be sobering, and gardaí often wish, when dealing with people aged 25 or even older, that they could call their parents in to see the state their children have arrived at. However, Rowan says, "In a society that is steeped in alcohol, there's no easy solution".
Parents are fighting a losing battle. Teenagers are awash in alcohol advertising telling them their favourite drug brings people together and makes them feel sexy, uninhibited, funny and confident. Advertising is aimed at giving the subconscious mind permission to act in an infantile way and behave amorally, with slogans such as, "How WKD are you?" and "How clear is your conscience?" Losing inhibition is the main reason anybody uses Irish society's favourite drug, alcohol, so why are we so surprised that with more young people drinking more than ever, there is an increase in random street violence?
Alcohol can make people feel warm, fuzzy and free, but it can also aggravate the nervous system, making them agitated and belligerent. When people use other drugs, such as cocaine, to boost the sensation, the risk of violence multiplies.
The social trend is to get drunk fast. Gardaí, A&E staff and violent offenders will tell you that young people are deliberately going out to get drunk and it's easier than ever to do so.
We're drinking twice as much as 10 years ago: the young have more money to spend on booze and licensing laws allow pubs to stay open until 2 a.m. and clubs until 4 a.m. When pubs closed at 11 p.m. in winter and 11.30 p.m. in summer, gardaí and A&E staff would have a lull between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Now the violence continues all night. Liberalised licensing laws have changed us from a people who got drunk on beer and stumbled home at midnight, to a nation of clubbers taking high-energy drinks with triple vodkas who don't know when to stop.
Sgt Finbar Murphy of Pearse Street Garda station says people are getting more drunk and more aggressive very quickly, starting the evening on "shorts" dispensed at happy hours.
US research has shown 90 per cent of violence is alcohol-related and that the more off-licences in an area, the more violence there. The availability of alcohol has been linked directly to the incidence of drive-by shootings. In the Republic, translate that as walk-by stabbings.
But better parenting alone isn't the solution. Liberal licensing laws and advertising that condones drunken behaviour also play a part.
• Series continues tomorrow and Wednesday and is available online at www.ireland.com/focus/streetcrime