Are the Irish more pressured to drink on St Paddy’s?

St Patrick’s day to students means only one thing – pre-drinking at five to nine, clambering for the first pint of free Guinness.

As if the pressure of getting as smashed as you can as fast as you can wasn’t tremendous enough, and with The Tab’s bezzie marras the SU holding a self proclaimed “All day crazy carnival” where pints of Guinness will literally be given away for free, do the Irish students here feel a greater pressure to celebrate all those snakes leaving Ireland?

Hands up for a day sesh

Northumbria lecturer Matthew Kearney, from Colleraine himself, thinks so. He’s published a book that essentially links Paddy’s day to “lad culture” that’s even worse for actual Irish people.

Imagine that lad from Derry in your seminar group not getting shit faced today. You just wouldn’t think it was right.

Kearney says: “When Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip publicly enjoying a Guinness experience while visiting Ireland, it starts to become even more apparent that alcohol consumption is so completely intertwined with “Irishness”.

The research revealed that every single person who took part in the research celebrated St Patrick’s Day and many maxed out their credit cards and borrowed from friends and family to support the celebrations.

Kearney’s drinking stats showed that most of the Irish drinkers who took part “seemed to feel an inescapable pressure to drink as though it is part of Irish consumers’ culture and heritage”.

When this is combined with the expectations of others, created by the concerted efforts of marketers, the result appears to be inevitable. Basically if you’re Irish everyone expects you to have a bev, St Patrick’s or not. Our hearts bleed.

So we asked some students with the sexiest accents of all time thought about a sneaky peeve today.

The poor soul struggling to keep up tradition last year.

Linsey, 20 and a wanna be journo, said: “Technically I’m not completely Irish because I’m from Castlerock in the North. I can’t see myself making it to any lectures tomorrow though. I enjoy a bev anyway so it’s a good excuse. I’ve never missed a Paddy’s session.”

Orla Murray, struggling her way through a PGCE Primary Education course, told the Tab: “I haven’t actually got time. My course is only for one year and it’s all practical so if I turned around and said I’d sacked a day off because I was out I think I’d fail. It would be easier if I was home in Cork because it’s more accepted, but it’s just a complete piss up over here.”

So maybe take one for the team today. If you’re one of the students packed into Habiat claiming their 1/78 Irish heritage, take a bev for your fellow man to ease the pressure for their poor dehydrated souls.