Irish drinking habits.

Chapter V.

Drunkenness - Notions of Conviviality.

The habit of intemperate drinking had grown to such an excess in Ireland, that it was gravely asserted there was something in the people’s constitution congenial to the excitement of ardent spirits. The propensity of intoxication among the people had been remarked from the earliest times. Sir W. Petty, who wrote in the year 1682, when Dublin contained but 6,025 houses, states 1,200 of them were public-houses, where intoxicating liquors were sold. In 1798, in Thomas-street, nearly every third house was a public-house. The street contained 190 houses, and of these 52 were licensed to sell spirits.

Among the upper classes the great consumption was claret, and so extensive was its importation, that, in the year 1763, it amounted to 8,000 tuns, and the bottles alone were estimated at the value of £67,000. This fact is detailed by honest Rutty, the Quaker historian of the county of Dublin. Such were the convivial habits of the day, and so absorbed were the people in the indulgence, that the doctor recommended that port should be substituted in its place, “Because,” said he, with quaint simplicity, “it would not admit so long a sitting - a great advantage to wise men in saving a great deal of their precious time.” In fact, the great end and aim of life in the upper classes seemed to be convivial indulgence to excess. The rule of drinking was, that no man was allowed to leave the company till he was unable to *stand, *and then he might depart if he could walk.

If on any occasion a guest left the room, bits of paper were dropped into his glass, intimating the number of rounds the bottle had gone, and on his return he was obliged to swallow a glass for each, under the penalty of so many glasses of salt and water. It was the practice of some to have decanters with round bottoms, like a modern soda-water bottle, the only contrivance in which they could stand being at the head of the table, before the host; stopping the bottle was thus rendered impossible, and every one was obliged to fill his glass at once, and pass the bottle to his neighbour, on peril of upsetting the contents on the table.

A still more common practice was, to knock the stems off the glasses with a knife, so that they must be emptied as fast as they were filled, as they could not stand. Sometimes the guests, as they sat down, put off their shoes, which were taken out of the room; and the emptied bottles were broken outside of the door, so that no one could pass out till the carouse was over.

Such orgies were not occasional, but often continued every night, and all night long. A usual exhortation from a father to his son was, “Make your head, boy, while you’re young ;” and certain knots of seasoned drinkers, who had succeeded in this insane attempt, were called [two Greek words. KF], “the heads.” from their impenetrability to the effects of liquor. It was said that, “no man who drank ever died, but many died learning to drink;” and the number of victims who fell in acting on this principle was an appalling proof of the extent of this practice - most families could point to some victim of this premature indulgence.

An elderly clergyman, still living 30 or 40 years ago, on leaving home, when a youth, to enter college, stopped on his way at the hospitable mansion of a friend of his father for a few days. The whole time he was engaged with drinking parties every night, and assiduously plied with bumpers, till he sank under the table. In the morning he was, of course, deadly sick, but his host prescribed, ’ a hair of the old dog,” or that is, a glass of raw. spirits. On one night he contrived to steal through a back window. As soon as he was missed, the cry of “stole away” was raised and he was pursued, but effected his escape into the park. Here he found an Italian artist, who had also been of the company, but, unused to such scenes had likewise fled from the orgies. They concealed them themselves by lying down among the deer, and so passed the night.

Towards morning they returned to the house, and were witnesses of an extraordinary procession. Such of the company as were still able to walk, had procured a flat-backed car, on which they heaped the bodies of those who were insensible; then throwing a sheet over them, and illuminating them with candles, like an Irish wake, some taking the shafts of the car before, and others pushing behind, and all setting up the Irish cry, the *sensible *survivors left their departed insensible friends at their respective homes. The consequences of this debauch were several duels between the active and passive performers on the following day

No class of society, even the gravest, was exempt from this indulgence. Even judges on the bench were seen inebriated, without much shame, and with little censure. One, well known, was noted for the maudlin sensibility with which he passed sentence. It was remarked of him by Curran, that “though he did not weep, he certainly had a drop in his eye.”

The indulgence was so universal, that pursuits of business never interfered with it. An Attorney (Howard), writing in 1776, complaining of the want of reform in the law, and the evils of his profession, thus speaks:- “This leads me to mention an evil, which I fain have thrown a veil over, but for the great degree of excess to which it has arrived in this kingdom, above all others, and even among the professors the law, a profession which requires the clearest, coolest head a man can possibly have. Can we complain of being censured of dishonesty, if we undertake the management of a man’s affairs, and render ourselves incapable of conducting them? and is not this the case with every man who has filled himself with strong wines, unless he has such an uncommon capacity as not one in a thousand is ever blessed with! The observation of Englishmen of business is, that they could not conceive how men in this kingdom transacted any business, for they seemed to do nothing but walk the courts the whole morning, and devote the whole evening to the bottle.”

Innumerable are the anecdotes which might be collected to illustrate the excessive indulgence in drink, now fortunately wholly exploded from all classes. Sir Jonah Barrington has recorded some, in which he was an actor, which are so highly characteristic, that we cite two of them, though, perhaps, already known to most of our renders. Near to the kennel of his father’s hounds was built a small lodge, and to this was rolled a hogshead of claret; a carcass of beef was hung up against the wall; a kind of ante-room was filled with straw, as a kennel for the company, when inclined to sleep; and all the windows were closed, to shut out the light of day. Here nine gentlemen, who excelled in various convivial qualities, were enclosed on a frosty St. Stephen’s day, accompanied by two pipers and a fiddler, with two couple of hounds, to join in the chorus raised by the guests. Among the sports introduced was a cock-fight, in which 12 game cocks were thrown on the floor, who fought together till only one remained alive, who was declared the victor. Thus for seven days the party were shut in, till the cow was declared cut up, and the claret on the stoop, when the last gallon was mulled with spices, and drunk in tumblers to their next merry meeting.

The same writer describes a party given in an unfinished room, the walls of which were recently plastered, and the mortar soft. At ten, on the following morning, some friends entered to pay a visit, and they found the company fast asleep in various positions, some on chairs, and some on the floor among empty bottles, broken plates and dishes, bones and fragments of meat floated in claret, with a kennel of dogs devouring them. On the floor lay the piper, on his back, apparently dead, with the table-cloth thrown over him for a shroud, and six candles placed round him, burned down to the sockets. Two of the company had fallen asleep, with their heads close to the soft wall; the heat and light of the room, after 18 hours’ carousal, had caused the plaster to set and harden, so that the heads of the men were firmly incorporated with it. It was necessary, with considerable difficulty, to punch out the mass with an oyster-knife, giving much pain to the parties, by the loss of half their hair and a part of the scalp. Allowing all licence for the author’s colouring, it is difficult to conceive the existence of such a state of affairs in any civilized country.

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