Paddy has a genius for avoidance when it comes to tackling our affinity for alcohol, writes Declan Lynch
It seems that our old friend the drink is still getting a free pass. Gerry Ryan had apparently been drinking and using cocaine on the day he died, yet in all the talk which ensued, there was hardly a mention of the drink.
Even as we appeared to be talking about the realities of addiction, we were somehow engaging in a deeper denial. Or maybe there is some realm beyond denial in which we actually don't regard alcohol as a mood-altering substance at all. We just don't see it in those terms. We don't see it at all.
Source: Declan Lynch, The Irish Independent, 19/12/2010