When it comes to adventures in drinking, the Irish will almost certainly volunteer to go where no man has gone before. Whether we'll take to vodka-snorting with the same bravado as drinking pioneers in New York and London has, however, yet to be established.
Vodka- (and tequila- and whiskey-) snorting is approaching passe in New York, is de rigeur in many clubs and pubs in London and (if the hula-hoop is anything to go by) will be intoxicating soon at a pub near you.
Snorting vodka involves taking a spoonful of the spirit to one nostril and inhaling it swiftly through the nasal passages to theoretically give an instant "hit" or "buzz". Like any intrepid reporter concerned about the public's right to know, I felt it incumbent upon myself to take three curious acquaintances to a Dublin bar and test the coming craze. A shot of vodka, a spoon and a straw before each of us, we sat in the Life bar in Abbey Street. Computer technician Fintan McAlinden (31), remarked: "I can think of better things to be doing with a shot of vodka, but here we go." A sup from his pint of Heineken - for courage - and a spoon of vodka to his nose - for research. No time to think, a strong inhalation and . . . "Bhwoaghhhh. Jaysus. Oh God," followed by a scramble to shake his senses back into working order. Journalist Mary Lynch (25) decided to try inhaling via the straw. "Oooooough." The straw method, as opposed to inhaling straight from the spoon, seemed to deliver a more direct effect. "The music seems a lot louder," she said and, having calmed down, wiped the coursing tears from her cheeks before advising: "I don't think it would be a good idea to wear mascara doing this." She said she "definitely felt a buzz of something, compared to just drinking it".
Internet consultant Ronan O Caollai (26) was not at all keen. He tried it once, then said the vodka hit him "like a steam-train, though it would be very good if you had a blocked nose", and reverted to his Guinness. Paul Lynch, assistant manager of Life, says he has seen vodka and tequila-snorting in New York, and tried it himself. "I didn't like it much. It is really a party thing, more than something you'd do if you were out for a few drinks to relax."
He says vodka-snorting is unlikely to be catered for in Life. "For one thing, it doesn't look good, and for another we would sell less vodka. We sell about 80 to 90 bottles a week. If people were snorting it, we'd sell about 20."
Michelle Ring is the manager at the Donkey's Ears pub in Cork. "I would say no," she said. "I'd be wary of the effects it would have on an individual. It could get out of hand." However, she concedes that if it became a trend, "we would go with the flow".
Maria O'Neill, manager at Nestor's pub in Limerick, is adamant there will be no vodka snorting on her premises. "It's not worth the hassle," she said.
Bronagh Finlay, manager of Major Tom's bar in Dublin, says vodka-snorting would "absolutely not" be permitted in the bar, "purely for health and safety reasons".
But David Charles, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the Eye and Ear Hospital on Adelaide Road in Dublin, reckons there would actually be no harm in snorting vodka, in moderation. Nor, however, can he see it could give any real intoxicating effect. "It would be much the same as holding alcohol in your mouth. It would have a dehydrating effect," he said.
"As with the mouth, the nose has a very good blood-supply and is therefore a way of getting medication, or drugs such as snuff and cocaine, quickly into the blood stream," he explains. "But to take a small amount of vodka, such as you would get on a teaspoon . . . it would go quickly into the blood but it would still have to circulate through the body before reaching the brain and having any real effect."
No, he says, the vodka would not get straight to the brain at the top of the nose.
"If someone was to snort vodka all the time, it would have a burning, irritant effect," he cautions. "They might have nose-bleeds." In the service of truth, this reporter took the vodka to her nose, and a not-too-unpleasant rush of liquid was followed quickly by tingling rush, which was overtaken by an intense burning sensation somewhere behind the eyes, and, once over that, the residual sense was a rather thumping one of having been - albeit without the pain - run over by a steam train. Rather like that time one drank too much vodka for the first time - the only difference being that, thankfully, the after-effects of snorting were measured in minutes rather than hours.