The Guinness Championship; the Heineken Cup. The notion of a social contact facilitated by sport has never been denied and the sponsorships connected with the premier sports events indicate there is also a bottom line.

One concern over the years has been the extent to which those social activities have affected people's drinking behaviour, with the ESRI survey pointing to the GAA and soccer. It concludes "in general, members of soccer and GAA clubs drink more than the general population" but importantly points out "this is not as prevalent among younger club members, particularly in soccer. It would seem to be the older members of clubs in these sports that drink more than the average for their age group."

That might very well be shocking to some but as one statistician said "statistics are like a street lamp, they are there to illuminate and not to lean upon" and so apparent anomalies arise.

The study also shows Mental Component Scores (MCS), which measures the mental wellbeing of individuals, hold up better for those older people who are members of sports clubs.

"There is a decline in mental wellbeing in the older age brackets among non-members (of sports clubs) that is not evident among members," says the study.

The Physical Component Scores (PCS) are even more clearcut and the statistics show while the PCS scores decrease over the life cycle for both members and non-members of sports clubs, as would be expected as people get older, they do so at a faster rate for non-members.

One conclusion that might be drawn is while older members may drink more in the GAA and in soccer, they will remain physically and mentally more capable if they do it as a member of a club.

Less flippantly, the study concludes "there is some cause for concern in the degree to which socialising associated with sport involves alcohol, particularly in the case of team sports" - this evolves around the centrality of the club in the social and organisational context of the GAA, rugby and to a lesser degree, soccer, in Ireland.

However, it goes on to point out club membership "seems to be part of a package that, relative to patterns in the rest of the population, is bound up with healthy living and successful living".