FRENCH authorities took the unprecedented move to ban alcohol in public places during the annual Fête de la Musique last weekend.

The national festival draws millions to the streets across the country, with music fans this year sweltering in temperatures of up to 40C.

With much of the country under a red weather alert, officials said the limit on alcohol consumption was imposed in order to preserve emergency and healthcare services and allow medical staff to focus on caring for the most vulnerable.

This makes a lot of sense; and a leaf or two could be taken out of the French book when it comes to Ireland’s drinking culture. We are slowly shifting the tide here but we are still way behind the curve when it comes to our alcohol consumption.

Even Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, a businessman who has earned a reputation for bolstering profits by upselling to passengers, has advocated that alcohol should be at least curtailed and preferably banned at airports and on flights.

Just last week the Health Information and Quality Authority said 2015 guidelines on what constitutes low-risk alcohol consumption may need to be revised downwards based on new research.

The existing guidelines – few than 11 standard drinks for women and 17 for men – should be lowered and there should be no difference in risk between genders, according to HIQA. In Canada the guidelines are for less than three standard units a week.

Most alarming was the report’s finding that there is no clear risk-free level of alcohol consumption, with a clear link to mortality and hospital admission rates.

Research published by IPSOS B&A for Drinkaware concerning the drinking habits of middle-aged men is equally worrying and sheds a light on a silent cultural dependency.

The survey found that alcohol remains the organising principle for friendships among men aged 40 to 55, whose social reliance on the pub is unchanged.

But another shift is even more alarming. More than half of adult drinkers (55%) are now most likely to drink at home and this behind closed doors practice can easily lead to habitual binge drinking.

Those wanting to cut back on their alcohol consumption said drink-free venues would help; but they are few and far between in our society which still leans heavily towards the pub and the ‘local’ as the go-to meeting point.

As Drinkaware’s chief executive Dearbhla O’Brien so aptly put it: ‘It is time to dismantle the unspoken expectation that connection requires intoxication. Our health and our friendships depend on it.’

No cure for heat

AS The Cure take to the stage at Marlay Park in Dublin this Friday for their only Irish gig this year, it’s worth remembering their 80s hit ‘Hot Hot Hot!!! as the country this week baked in searing temperatures.

While weather experts downplayed that it is a heatwave (apparently it must be five successive days of 30C-plus) we are experiencing, tell that to the frustrated motorists in Ballygarvan who found the road between there and Five Mile Bridge melting before their very eyes.

Good sense to close the road but for some the damage was already done with many complaining of tyres and bodywork covered in tar.

As if the roads of West Cork weren’t bad enough with poor surfaces we now have to contend with them melting as well! Reports also came in that the road between Bandon and Timoleague was bubbling away in sections also.

However we can thank our lucky stars that we are not experiencing the mind-boggling temperatures across the water and in continental Europe that have been deemed a threat to life in places.

Rest assured we will be back to more normal/school’s out temperatures for now and let’s hope the heat doesn’t melt the makeup of the many goths and Cure heads planning to attend this Friday’s concert.