ABSTRACT

In the small Irish community of Clontarf (a pseudonym), heavy alcohol consumption is considered nothing untoward. For most men, any weekend involves a substantial amount of drinking within several of its bars: a proportion of these drink regularly throughout the week; and although at weekends some men would be in the company of their wives, drinking is for the most part a male preserve. Since the adult population of Clontarf is only 450, the fact that no less than eight bars can survive, and in some cases prosper, itself indicates that drinking is a major dimension of recurrent income expenditure.