Madam, - Fine Gael's justice spokesman Mr John Deasy believes that "café-style drinking" would not work "given Ireland's drinking culture". As an Irish student studying in France, where café-style drinking is the norm, I don't see why.
Strange as it may seem, Irish students here are in fact capable of having a single glass of beer in a café. Despite our drinking culture, there is not an inherent thirst that forces us to have X number of pints.
We like to enjoy ourselves. But we are able to adapt to a new culture, and having a quiet beer or quieter coffee on a sunny afternoon or the night before a morning lecture is no longer an alien concept.
There will be a proportion of the Irish population who would find it hard to change. But there are those who will. The issue is choice: choice to change our lifestyle, choice to change our culture. - Yours, etc.
ALAN MORKAN.
Rennes,
France.