ABSTRACT
Following on from the historical and sociological context presented in Chapter 3, this chapter will review Irish alcohol policy developments during the forty-year period between 1975 and 2015. In line with the overall aims of this book, the intention here is to explore these policy developments with a view to discovering:
whether or to what effect policy communities emerged in Ireland over this period to champion the WHO’s public health approach to alcohol policy;
what forces, drinks industry-based or otherwise, challenged WHO recommendations in relation to alcohol;
how successive Irish governments actually adjudicated on the conflicting policy perspectives to which they were exposed on this issue.
