Will new warning labels in Ireland turn people away from alcohol?

Jack loves a drink and a standard night out would probably involve several pints at his local.

“If you’ve had three pints, it’s easy,” says the 29-year-old. “Probably a heavy night, casually, would be like six-plus pints.”

Jack grew up in County Galway, where, he says, young people often started drinking at the age of 14 or 15, “usually in a field with terrible cans of cider”.

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

Ireland has a complex relationship with drinking and many consider alcohol and social interaction to be inextricably linked, forming part of the social fabric of everyday life.

Pubs are usually the focal point of communities where there is often live music, and many traditional songs celebrate or talk about the disadvantages of having one too many. Giant brands like Guinness and Jameson are major exports.

Since 2020, supermarkets and corner shops across the country have had to erect physical barriers between sections selling alcoholic beverages and general produce, while some bottles and cans of wine now carry among the strongest warning labels anywhere in the world.

First signed into Irish law in 2023, products with the new labels – which state that drinking alcohol causes liver disease and is linked to deadly cancer – are already on sale in pubs and supermarkets across the country.

But in a move condemned by public health advocates, the Irish government has delayed their mandatory introduction until 2028, blaming uncertainty in world trade – which some believe is the result of lobbying by the drinks industry.

For its part, the industry body, Drinks Ireland, said it expected the Irish government to give some “breathing space” on health warning labels and believed they should be agreed at an EU-wide level.

When Jack moved to Dublin in 2015 to study journalism he really got to know the capital’s nightlife.

“Dublin is a great place because there’s always drinking going on and that’s why it’s famous,” he says. “It’s very pub-centric, drinks-heavy.”

A big weekend night out for Jack usually starts with pre-drinks at someone’s house – perhaps a bottle of gin mixed with tonic shared between him and three friends before heading to the club for shots.

Still, even though he sometimes drinks heavily, Jack, who works in advertising, says he knows his limits and feels healthy.

“I’m a pretty fit guy, 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 OK from a health standpoint.”

Three-fourths of the population here drinks alcohol and celebrations ranging from birthdays to weddings often involve alcohol.

According to figures from The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI), consumption has fallen by almost a third over the past 25 years.

Young people now start drinking at the average age of 17 – which is two years older than the average 20 years ago. But once they start, their consumption and binge drinking becomes the highest in Europe.

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

Campaigners believe Ireland’s alcohol warning labels are increasingly ineffective. But Amanda, 23, who has seen the label, isn’t so sure.

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

Amanda doesn’t think people will pay much attention to health warnings and thinks they may even encourage some people to drink alcohol.

“I don’t think they care,” she says.

When going out on a night out in Dublin Amanda says she’ll usually limit herself to a maximum of three drinks.

“When I’m out I like to be in control of what I do,” she says. “I don’t really drink that much to loosen up.”

She is mindful of how young people are viewed on social media, and how this influences her drinking choices.

“I don’t like to have pictures taken of me with a glass of wine or Guinness,” she says. “You don’t want to be in a compromising position, you don’t want people to have a negative image.”

Twenty-one-year-old Shawn lives in the capital and likes to socialize with friends – some drink alcohol, others not.

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

“There’s not much to do in Dublin after a certain point,” says Sean. “At six to seven or so the town kind of shuts down. Sometimes you’ll be like, ‘I’m not really in the mood to have a pint, but I want to sit somewhere and meet my friends’ – so you’ve got to have a pint.”

She’s also seen alcohol warning labels, but she’s not sure they’ll stop her from drinking.

He says, “Everyone knows it’s bad for you, but we do it anyway.”

Cigarette warning labels are “far more graphic”, says Shawn’s friend Mark.

Ireland was at the forefront of banning smoking and since 2004 you cannot smoke in the workplace or in restaurants and bars.

Even before the introduction of the new warning labels, some young Irish people in their 20s are realizing that their lives are better off without alcohol.

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

“I don’t really like the taste of it,” says the 21-year-old. “Guinness is probably the one I’d rather have, but it also has a price tag – I’m saving a lot of money by just getting the Club Orange.”

Helen is 27 years old and drank alcohol regularly when she was younger. Although she has not given up alcohol completely, like Mark she says she can live without it to a large extent.

“The last time I drank was in February,” says Helen. “It’s kind of subsided to the point where I’m more or less sober, but I don’t recognize it as the reason I might drink again – or maybe I won’t.”

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

Sam, now 27, says, “Then[I]went to college and drinking was a little fun.” “One day I realized this was going too far. My dad said to me, ‘What are you doing with your life? You really need to get it together.'”

In 2021 Sam signed up for a one-year no-beer course and then gave up alcohol completely. He has not drank alcohol for the past three years and has even given up playing concertina in pubs because drinking in one session had become a habit. Opts for zero-alcohol drinks when he goes to a pub.

But he says that sometimes people find it difficult to accept that they are drinking.

“There’s that weird person you meet and you tell them you’re not drinking and they look at you sideways.”

Unlike Sam, Jack is not keen on zero-alcohol drinks, and thinks these are “a waste of time, because it costs the same as a pint”.

He has thought about giving up drinking, but his inner resolve does not last long.

“To be honest, it’s quite difficult to start traveling sober in Ireland – because it’s so intrinsically ingrained in our culture,” says Jack.

“I always flirt with the idea of ​​being completely sober – but then I immediately tell (myself) off and have a pint.”

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