drink

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drink. In medieval Ireland the main beverages, aside from milk, seem to have been ale, beer, and mead, with imported wine being drunk among the ruling classes. Whiskey (from the Irish uisge beatha, water of life) was probably not introduced until the 14th century and then, mixed with herbs and spices, it was used largely for medicinal purposes. But from the middle of the 16th century the English authorities began to complain at the levels of whiskey being consumed in Ireland. English visitors praised the quality of Irish whiskey, while roundly condemning Irish ale and beer.

Government attempts to control the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol, and especially of whiskey, were partly due to the fact that taxes on drink offered a significant source of revenue in an otherwise undeveloped country; also the authorities wanted to regulate the consumption of grain, channelling it into food production during times of scarcity; but, more importantly, whiskey was seen as giving comfort to Irish rebels, while public houses offered them important refuges and meeting places.

Patterns of drinking in Ireland differed according to where people came from and what class they belonged to. In the medieval and early modern periods houses selling drink on a regular basis were generally confined to the towns and regular consumption of alcohol was thus an urban phenomenon. Outside the towns, up to the early 19th century, drinking was irregular and often ritualized. It was associated with special occasions; with hospitality and celebration. One 19th‐century observer termed this pattern ‘circumstantial drinking’. Alcohol was offered to visitors; it was consumed in large amounts at weddings and wakes; it was freely available during fairs and markets; and traditional religious festivals, like patterns, inevitably involved heavy drinking. But outside such special circumstances, alcohol was not a characteristic feature of rural diet. Visitors to Ireland during the 16th and 17th centuries singled out milk as the main beverage consumed in the countryside.

The landed ruling class, first Gaelic lords and later English planters, had readier access to alcohol. There was a substantial trade in wine, as well as wine smuggling, between Ireland and France and Spain. But, being imported, wine was an expensive commodity compared to homebrewed ale or locally distilled whiskey.

During the 18th century, however, spirits became much more readily available, to the extent that whiskey began to replace wine among the upper classes and ale among the lower. Government attempts to control the distilling industry, by raising taxes on whiskey and making small stills illegal, helped create a huge illicit industry which flourished up until the Famine. The development of illicit distillation undoubtedly did much to promote regular alcohol consumption in rural Ireland. However, both the producers and consumers of poteen were decimated by the Famine and when the Irish constabulary took over policing of illicit distillation in the early 1850s, the illegal industry was finally brought under firm government control.

From the mid‐19th century, aided by the spread of the railway network, commercial breweries and distilleries, which had been operating in the towns for a century or more, began to penetrate the countryside with their products. This was especially true of the brewers. Guinness's brewery, opened in Dublin in 1759, sold only 21 per cent of its output in rural Ireland in 1855, but by 1880 this figure had jumped to 40 per cent. Indeed, while per capita whiskey consumption in Ireland fell by nearly half between the 1850s and 1900s, the per capita consumption of beer leapt more than sevenfold. Ireland was becoming a nation of beer, ale, and stout drinkers. By 1914 brewing was the country's largest industry in terms of the value of its output. Major increases in the duty on whiskey during the 1850s had undoubtedly helped to dampen the demand for spirits. The Irish distilling industry in fact only survived by exporting its output: in 1914 two‐thirds of Irish‐produced whiskey was being sent out of the country.

During the first half of the 20th century drinking in Ireland was generally a male pastime, conducted regularly in public houses in both town and country. But significant changes occurred in Irish drinking patterns during the second half of the century. First, drink consumption in the Republic increased dramatically: it doubled in per capita terms in the years between 1960 and 1980. Partly this was a result of growing prosperity, but it also reflected the fact that women were increasingly challenging the male hegemony of the Irish public house. Before the 1960s few women had entered pubs and, if they did, they were usually confined to discreet snugs. But by the 1980s growing numbers of women were drinking in pubs alongside men and publicans were improving and diversifying their facilities in order to cater for their new customers. The sale of alcohol in off‐licences and supermarkets also undoubtedly helped to boost consumption. Drinking was increasingly occurring at home or in clubs and restaurants, rather than in the traditional pubs.

In the 1970s a third of alcohol consumed in Ireland was spirits, about 60 per cent was beer and stout, while wine claimed about 5 per cent. But wine consumption was rising, as the consumption of spirits was falling.

Although the Irish have a reputation as heavy drinkers, alcohol consumption in Ireland is not especially high by international standards. Indeed, the country has the largest population of total abstainers (see temperance and total abstinence) in the European Union. But Irish social life does still largely revolve around the pub and there is an unusually tolerant attitude towards drunkenness. This tends often to mean that public drunkenness is more obvious in Ireland than in some other countries, which may help give the Irish their reputation for being excessive drinkers.

Bibliography

Lynch, P., and and Vaizey, J. , Guinness's Brewery in the Irish Economy, 1759–1876 (1960)
McGuire, E. B. , Irish Whiskey: A History of Distilling in Ireland (1973)
Malcolm, E. L. , ‘Ireland Sober, Ireland Free’: Drink and Temperance in Nineteenth‐Century Ireland (1986)

Elizabeth Malcolm

drink / dringk/ • v. (past drank / drangk/ ; past part. drunk / drəngk/ ) [tr.] take (a liquid) into the mouth and swallow: we sat by the fire, drinking our coffee | [intr.] he drank thirstily. ∎  [intr.] consume or be in the habit of consuming alcohol, esp. to excess: she doesn't drink or smoke he drank himself into a stupor | [as n.] (drinking) Les was ordered to cut down his drinking. ∎  [intr.] (drink up) consume the rest of a drink, esp. in a rapid manner. ∎  (drink something in) fig. watch or listen to something with eager pleasure or interest: she strolled to the window to drink in the view. ∎  inf. (of a plant or a porous substance) absorb (moisture). ∎  [intr.] (of wine) have a specified flavor or character when drunk: this wine is really drinking beautifully. • n. a liquid that can be swallowed as refreshment or nourishment: cans of soda and other drinks | a table covered with food and drink. ∎  a quantity of liquid swallowed: he had a drink of water. ∎  alcohol, or the habitual or excessive consumption of alcohol: the effects of too much drink they both took to drink. ∎  a glass of liquid, esp. when alcoholic: we went for a drink. ∎  (the drink) inf. the sea or another large area of water. PHRASES: drink and drive drive a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. drink deep take a large draft or drafts of something: fig. he learned to drink deep of the Catholic tradition. drink someone's health express one's good wishes for someone by raising one's glass and drinking a small amount. drink (a toast) to celebrate or wish for the good fortune of someone or something by raising one's glass and drinking a small amount. drink someone under the table inf. consume as much alcohol as one's drinking companion without becoming as drunk. I'll drink to that uttered to express one's agreement with or approval of a statement.DERIVATIVES: drink·a·ble adj.

drink Water and milk were the usual forms of liquid nourishment, but wine was also greatly valued for occasions of festivity (John 2: 3) and religious rites (Mark 14: 25). Excessive drinking of wine was shameful (Eph. 5: 18). For the kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14: 17)—though it is also possible for the symbol of a banquet to be used of the Kingdom (Matt. 25: 10; Luke 22: 30); and sharing a meal in fellowship and hospitality was for early christians a meeting too with their risen Lord. The Greek word agape (love) came to be applied to such meals, for which they could claim the example of Jesus himself (Matt. 11: 19).

drink drink someone under the table consume as much alcohol as one's drinking companion without becoming as drunk.
he that drinks beer, thinks beer proverbial saying, early 19th century, warning against the effects of intoxication.
I'll drink to that uttered to express one's agreement with or approval of a statement.

drink vb. OE. drincan = OS. drinkan, OHG. trinkan (G. trinken), ON. drekka, Goth. drigkan :- Gmc. str. vb. *dreŋkan, with no ulterior cognates.
So sb. OE.

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