So, Thursday 24th September was dubbed Arthur's Day by Guinness and drinks giant Diageo. The Guinness brewery in Dublin was opened 250 years ago, and in a fantastic global marketing campaign the Guinness marketeers encouraged us to raise a glass of the black stuff at exactly 17:59 hrs in honour of the founder Arthur Guinness himself. By all accounts it seems to have been very successful - pictures in the press showing streets around the country thronged with people raising a glass of the black stuff; even my eight year old son asking me was I going out to celebrate Arthur's day! (Full disclosure: I have not been in a pub to have an alcoholic drink in over 18 months, such is my current lifestyle!) I would have very much liked a Guinness on Thursday, especially when my wife told me she had intened to bring me home some Guinness cans (but didn't).

However, late on Thursday evening I picked up some Twitter traffic live from Temple Bar, and the reports of broken glass blanketing the streets was an off-putting image. On Friday morning, I read John Waters' article in the Irish Times (read it here) reminding us that binge drinking (definition: drinkling with the primary purpose of achieving intoxication) in Ireland is one of the highest rates in Europe, and that after all Guinness (and other beers etc) is a "liquid drug, a mind-altering concoction". More poignantly, Waters points out that more than 100 Irish people die every month as a direct result of alcohol. That is a hell of a lot more than have died from swine flu.

I'm not trying to put a downer on it. I like Guiness, I like drinking (in moderation, but have been guilty of excess in the past I do admit), I am proud to be Irish and proud of Irish culture and heritage, but this article did strike a chord, just as much as the tweet from Temple Bar which conjured up an image of dirty drunken streets full of violence and obscenity.

The view is not looking so good today.