Will new warning labels in Ireland put people off alcohol?

Jack likes a drink and a typical night out will probably include several pints at his venue.

“Three pints is very easy,” says the 29-year-old. “Probably a heavy night, coincidentally, it would be like more than six pints.”

Jack grew up in County Galway, where, he says, young people often start drinking at 14 or 15, “usually in a field with a horrendous can of cider.”

“And then when you’re 17 your dad takes you to the pub, buys you a pint of Guinness and that’s where it takes hold.”

Ireland has a complex relationship with drinking and many see alcohol and socializing as inextricably linked, part of the social fabric of everyday life.

Pubs tend to be the focal point of communities where there is often live music and many traditional songs celebrate or talk about the harms of having too many of them. Big brands like Guinness and Jamesons are important exports.

Since 2020, supermarkets and convenience stores across the country have had to erect physical barriers between sections selling alcohol and general merchandise, while some bottles and cans of alcohol now carry some of the strongest warning labels in the world.

First enacted into Irish law in 2023, products with the new labels, which claim that drinking causes liver disease and is linked to deadly cancers, are now on sale in pubs and supermarkets across the country.

But in a move condemned by public health campaigners, the Irish government has delayed its mandatory introduction until 2028, blaming the uncertainty on global trade, which some believe is the result of drinks industry lobbying.

For its part, industry body Drinks Ireland said it hoped the Irish government would give a “breather” to health warning labels and believed they should be agreed at EU-wide level.

It was when Jack moved to Dublin in 2015 to study journalism that he really got to know the capital’s nightlife.

“Dublin is a great place because there is always spontaneous drinking and that’s what it’s famous for,” he says. “It’s very pub-centric and a lot of drinks are consumed.”

A great weekend night for Jack usually starts with a few drinks at someone’s house (perhaps a bottle of gin mixed with tonic shared between him and three friends) before heading to a club for a few drinks.

However, although he sometimes drinks a considerable amount, Jack, who works in advertising, says he knows his limits and feels healthy.

“I’m a pretty fit person, I ran a marathon a year ago,” he says. “I know my limits. As long as you know what your limits are, I think it’s okay from a health standpoint.”

Three-quarters of the population here drink and celebrations, from birthdays to weddings, often involve alcohol.

Consumption has fallen by around a third in the last 25 years, according to figures from the Beverages Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).

Young people, on average, now start drinking at age 17, two years older than the average 20 years ago. But once they start, their drinking and binge drinking are among the highest in Europe.

A report by public health advocacy group Alcohol Action Ireland found that the proportion of 15- to 24-year-olds consuming alcohol had increased (from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024) and that two in three 15- to 24-year-olds binge drink regularly.

Campaigners believe alcohol warning labels in Ireland are having an increasing impact. But Amanda, 23, who has seen the labels, isn’t so sure.

“You look at it and think, ‘Oh, I just drank that. Should I drink another one?'”

Amanda doesn’t think people pay much attention to health warnings and believes they might even make some people more inclined to drink.

“I just don’t think they care,” he says.

On a night out in Dublin, Amanda says she usually limits herself to a maximum of three drinks.

“I like to be in control of what I do when I’m away,” he says. “I don’t really drink that much to let loose.”

He is aware of how young people are perceived on social media and that influences his own drinking decisions.

“I don’t like taking photos with a glass of wine or Guinness,” he says. “You don’t want to be in compromising positions, you don’t want people to have a negative image.”

Twenty-one-year-old Sean lives in the capital and likes to socialize with friends: some drink and some don’t.

Unlike other parts of Europe, Sean says that if you want to socialize in the evenings, there aren’t many options here apart from going to the pub.

“After a certain time, there’s not much to do in Dublin,” says Sean. “From six to seven or so the city closes. Sometimes you’d say, ‘I’m not really in the mood for a pint, but I want to sit somewhere and see my friends’, so you’ve got to have a pint.”

You’ve also seen alcohol warning labels, but you’re not sure they discourage you from drinking.

“Everyone knows it’s bad for your health, but we do it anyway,” he says.

The warning labels on cigarettes are “a lot more graphic,” adds Sean’s friend Mark.

Ireland was a pioneer in restricting smoking and since 2004 smoking has not been allowed in the workplace or in restaurants and bars.

Even before the introduction of the new warning labels, some young Irish people in their twenties have found that they are better off without alcohol in their lives.

Mark rarely drinks. It’s “one for my birthday, one for Christmas,” he says, partly because alcohol is expensive and it’s cheaper to opt for something else.

“I don’t really like the taste of it,” says the 21-year-old. “I’d probably have Guinness, but also the cost: I’m saving a lot of money just by getting Club Orange.”

Helen is 27 years old and used to drink regularly when she was younger. Although he hasn’t given up alcohol completely, like Mark, he says he can largely live without it.

“The last time I had a drink was in February,” says Helen. “It just tapered off to this point where I’m more or less sober, but I don’t identify myself as that because I may go back to having a drink, or maybe not.”

Helen’s friend Sam, who started drinking when he was “16 or 17”, has gone a step further.

“It was a bit of fun then [I] I went to university and my drinking started to take off,” says Sam, now 27. “One day I realized I was going too far. My dad said to me: ‘What are you doing with your life? You really need to pack it in.'”

In 2021, Sam enrolled in a year-long beer-free course and then gave up alcohol completely. He hasn’t had a drink in three years and even stopped playing the concertina in pubs because it was so ingrained to have a drink in a session. When you go to a pub, you opt for a non-alcoholic drink.

But he says it sometimes seems difficult for people to accept that he is teetotal.

“There’s some people you know and you tell them you’re not drinking and they look at you askance.”

Unlike Sam, Jack doesn’t like non-alcoholic drinks and thinks they are “a waste of time, because they cost the same as a pint.”

He has thought about quitting drinking, but his inner resolve never lasts long.

“Honestly, it’s quite difficult trying to embark on the sobriety journey in Ireland, because it’s so intrinsically intertwined with our culture,” says Jack.

“I always flirt with the idea of ​​getting completely sober, but then I instantly talk it out of it. [myself] and have a pint.”

The BBC asked the Irish government why it had postponed the mandatory introduction of new alcohol warning labels until 2028. It said the decision to postpone was made following concerns raised about the impact of their implementation on the current global trading environment.