I was allowed a glass of sparkling wine with my Sunday lunch from about 12. When I reached 16 I was bought 2 cans of lager on a Saturday as my mother thought I was going to drink anyway so at least she could monitor me. I think the problem is not underage drinking but binge drinking. Educating young people about alcohol is the key point.

16 in a bar in Bundoran. I didn’t look over 18 and wasn’t asked any questions. I had 3 pints and a couple of vodkas. All inhibitions were gone and told a 20 year old girl that age was no barrier. Didn’t work though :(

Honestly not surprising.
We need to adopt the continental model to be realistic about our drinking habits.
Prevent 16- 18 year olds from getting their hands on hard spirits etc but allow 16+ year olds access to beer and wine provided they display ID etc.
In some parts of Germany the only legal places for 16 year olds to drink is in specially licensed bars so as to monitor their behavior in a safe environment.
While in Ireland most people have their first drink out in a field or at a clandestine house party where anything could happen.

First drink at my debs in 1983. Drank far too mucj pernod and blackcurrant . I Still haven’t recovered . It put me off for life

Surely first taste is not same as first drink. My granny used to put a glass of sherry in the trifle and I was eating that since I remember. I also had altar wine plenty of times before reaching 15.

On a Saturday night my father used to drink 2 cans, I was 12/13 and I used to pour them in to a glass and lick the froth off the top of the can and thought I was great. When I was 16/17 he used to buy me 4 or 6 cans, drop me at a session and he was happy knowing that those cans he bought would be all I’d drink, now I’m 28 I hardly ever drink, had a few hangovers while I was a student, put me off it. Dont like being fuzzy the next day, feels like a waste. I’ll have a pint at a wedding, christening, BBQ etc, but that’s it. We are a nation of binge drinkers for the most part and that’s a pity, no appreciation for how a beer/ wine/ spirit is to taste, just treating the weekend as a chance to get drunk and forget the week. And before people tell me to get off my high horse, I was one of these people, and just check your Facebook timeline on a Saturday night, full of people heading out to get “twisted” and check in again on Sunday morning, ‘I’m dying today” etc

A sip of babycham at 12, thought I was a pure rebel! Thankfully I’m not a big drinker now nor have I ever really been.

Woodies alcopops or a quid. Eugh!

My parents are French… Thought me to respect alcohol, when I was young they let me have watered down wine..

Aggh god bless the auld alcopops back in the day , Bit of hooch , white lightning , and 50/50 ! Thanks me cousin for leading me astray on Wicklow beach mid 90′s …

Slainte.

I went to work in a bar in Ios, Greece when i was 23, never touched a drop before then, I lasted 6 days before I was introduced to cheap Ouzo. The rest is pretty much a blurr and that was 19 years ago!

I started drinking when I was 14! I now do not drink for the last 3 years only on special occasions! Which is usually just xmas! Doesnt appeal to me at all anymore!

I drank West Coast Cooler when I was 7 or 8. Told my mother that morning I was drinking 7up in a glass. During the day my mother went mad when she saw the some of the bottle has been drunk and was blaming my elder sister for drinking it the night before and would have gave out when she got home from school. But around lunchtime the teacher rang home asking was I up late as I was asleep in class! It clicked with my mother then! no memory but good times! PS i’m not much of a drinker these days!

I was about 15 when I started drinking. My dad let me have a couple of cans with him while watching Match of the Day, the idea being he knew I was going to drink so I might as well drink with his supervision.

Like most people I’ve overdone it on occasion, but I’m now at a point were I no longer drink alcohol. I am secure enough as a person to have just as good a time out with friends without needing drink as a crutch to make me lighten up.

Both my cousin (RIP) and I were both 14 and staying at the grandparents for the weekend. The grandparents went out for a few and we decided to raid their drinks trolley, we experimented with everything. I ended up doing a Superman impression through a glass panel and had to visit A&E due to glass splitting the inside of my mouth open,the grandparents were not amused.

They need to make it illegal for underagers to buy alcohol…at the moment the law is only agains selling them so they can make all the fake IDs they want and try to pull wool over pub and supermarket eyes and they suffer no concequences.

I remember being in Boston in 1995 where the legal drink age was 21. I may be wrong on the figures but if an underage drinker was caught on premises the bar was fined $3,000, the barman that served was fined $300 and the underage drinker was also fined $300.

Mad Dog 20/20 eh? Remember that stuff? £1.20 a bottle when I was in college.

This poll shows 60-70% being underage when they had their first drink. I was first drunk at 16 in the mid-90s. A flaggan of cider some yokel bought for us down the town, classy. Had my first joint not long after. How can people today tut-tut and wag their fingers at teenagers when we as a country, including the adult population have an unhealthy attitude to getting a good buzz on?

We are one of the highest consumers of alcohol per capita in the world, all the major family events are marked by letting loose on drink, weddings, funerals, birthdays, our national holiday is regarded worldwide as a piss-up… and a lot of people are, lets face it, a little proud of that. The coming of age ritual for the majority in our society is getting a pint down the local when you turn 18. Is it really surprising that teenagers seek to emulate that which the adult population relish with self-destructive abandon.

There were underage drinking scandals in my hometown in the 90s, the 80s and I’m willing to bet money that this will be repeated in the future generations.

And for those of you that say “well at least we weren’t doing drugs” that’s probably only down to the lack of availability, Teenagers are eejits yes, but this is nothing new, they don’t have a fully developed prefrontal cortex and honed sense of cause-and-effect like we’re all supposed to have. We need to admit that they are almost, but not yet, adults and that they require engagement and guidance from those of us that are.

I had my first drink an hour ago,breakfast wine is very moorish! and yes I expect the,”alcohalism is not a joke” brigade to have a hissy at me.but could I pls draw ur attention to the ex leader of our country,do I need to say which one,exactly! so the powers that be don’t give a shit and a lot of money in coffers because of the countries proud addiction! so cheers,up the hatch and same again! change the government and you change our habits.

Used to buy underage in Tesco. It was easy as they only asked for ID at the off-licence checkout. All you had to do was add food and go to food checkout. I found ham bread and crisps worked well ;)

I was 15, cheap naggin of Glens vodka at a house party my older brother bought me. I bought my first pint a few weeks later at Slane 2003. Perhaps if it hadn’t seemed so clandestine the thrill would have been lost and I wouldn’t have spent the next seven years bingeing! Thankfully I have adopted a more measured attitude over the last few years.

16 although not a lot but not ashamed to say they were great times

Young people drink and get away with it because the laws to stop them getting hold of it are not strictly enforced.

Strictly enforcing existing laws will do more good than throwing a slew of new regulations at the problem (This works for everything).

Tried a swig of whiskey when I was 12. Didn’t like it at all. 50 years later I still don’t drink spirits.
Started drinking beer in pubs (in England) at 17. Sometimes asked how old? but not often.
Used to drink about three pints most nights all through twenties and thirties.
Never got drunk to the point of falling over, and now I can take it or leave it and haven’t had a drop for two months. And I never got involved in fights or antisocial behaviour.
So it’s up to the individual to take responsibility. Don’t use the drink as an excuse if you have behaved badly after drinking it. Those who can’t drink sensibly are better off NOT drinking at all. Any battered wife wil give testimony to that fact.

Used drink in 2 pubs in moate when I was 14 back in 1993/4. Never asked for ID and didn’t look old enough to buy fags never mind drink (16 back then). Teenagers have always and will always find a way to do what they want. If a finger of blame is to be pointed then it should be at booze itself, it’s just too yummy. I’ve been drinking bulmers for 20 years now and at 33 I’m looking forward to our next 40 to 50 years together. Provided my liver doesn’t pack in.

Me and my brother ” borrowed” a small bottle of whiskey and re filled the bottle with apple juice. Never got caught. My aunt (black sheep type) was never invited back really. Best sleep I ever had…

Every child has a taste of beer or wine before they are 10 but that should not count.

Tis like the big red button! If you tell someone not to press it, whats the first thing they’ll do?

About an hour ago! ;-)

You’re not counting punch made with poitín and hot milk and sugar for childhood colds, right?

you need gardai to enforce laws and where are they exactly……..oh thats right alan shutter has decided we don’t need any so maybe the easter bunny or tooth fairy could enforce drink laws, its not those that drink that are the worst its the government charged with enforcing the laws on drink that are the worst!

In the pub where I work no underage gets servered here.I am an expert at spoting the youngsters trying it on.What they do is go to the supermarket and buy a few food stuffs along with the whiskey and vodka.

Young people drink and take drugs, always have, always will.
It’s how much they can get away with is the problem.
Strict anti-social behaviour laws would put the sh1ts up them fairly quick and sort out the messing.

Had my first drink to celebrate my confirmation.

Given all those sips of foam off my father’s glass of Guinness, and those small sips of champagne to celebrate new years all before the age of 10, I was a terribly bold child.