This week, we heard news falling straight from the category “Only in Ireland”.

What happened? A motion, passed by Kerry County Council in South-West Ireland, would allow older drivers to drive back home after Guinness filled nights at the pub.

It seems councillors tried to confirm the old Irish proverb “If you can’t take it with you, you have to drink it.” But the main argument for this unusual policy initiative is more straightforward: Irish pub culture is dying out because nobody dares to drink anymore.

Gone are the days in which proud Irishmen gathered over countless pints of Guinness and whiskey, sang along to past-time music, and shared jokes amongst each other. Strict and regularly enforced drink-driving laws have killed off this important part of Irish national culture, the council complained.

As one of the councillors argued, allowing a bit of drink-driving wouldn’t be such a big deal in any case. After all, very few drunk Irishmen would drive faster than 20 or 30 miles an hour. On the other hand, on some of Ireland’s winding country roads even such speeds can be quite an adventure.

The councillor, who incidentally is also a barman, may have a point nevertheless. If evidence presented in Dubner and Levitt’s book Freakonomics is anything to go by, there are more dangerous activities than drink driving. Drink walking for example.

Someone walking a mile from an Irish pub back to his home is apparently eight times more likely to die compared to driving the same distance inebriated. If that’s true, perhaps the Irish government should look at relaxing the laws on drink driving and outlaw drink walking? It might lower the risk of fatal accidents.

To be clear: Drink-driving is dangerous, not only in Ireland, and it is rightly banned. But in a world all too often obsessed with health and safety, risks and dangers, it is somehow heartening to hear about a rural council in the Irish countryside going the opposite way.

In the end, as with everything, the wisdom lies in the middle. Not every minuscule danger deserves to be banned and regulated away if we don’t want to kill all the joys of life.
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Thus Ireland’s drink driving limit still allows for a pint after work. For every drink beyond that, there are taxis. Even in Kerry County. Slainte!