Why Can’t They Have Cans?

On a recent Tuesday evening, Pierce Fahy sat on a mooring rolling a cigarette, next to the Grand Canal near Portobello in the south inner-city.

Nearby, an elderly man sipped beer from a can – as many do on the banks in the late-summer evenings when the weather is kind.

But even though drinking in public spaces is illegal that doesn’t bother Fahy, who lives nearby in Rathmines.

There’s little trouble caused by public drinking here, he says. “When it boils down to it, people are going to do it either way, regardless of the policing.”

It’s been illegal to drink in public spaces in Dublin since October 2008, when councillors brought in bylaws that outlawed drinking “intoxicating liquor” in public.

Not everybody agreed with that approach back then, though, and some wonder if the persistence of outdoor drinking means it is time to take another look.

Reining It In

“I felt that it was really an admission of the council’s inability to manage public space,” said Green Party Councillor Ciarán Cuffe, of the 2008 bylaws. He opposed them at the time.

As he sees it, rather than banning activities which are allowed inside homes, such as drinking, the city should just manage public space better.

Others agree, and argue that there should be fewer restrictions. “I would far prefer to encourage good behaviour,” says Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey. “My instinct is for less rules and more
manners.”

There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that allowing outdoor drinking would mean that people would drink way more. At least, there hasn’t been research into that in Ireland.

“In terms of having an impact on health it’s hard to know, because people drink a lot but they probably would be drinking indoors anyway,” said Joe Barry, a professor of public health at Trinity College Dublin.

If you’re trying to tackle over-consumption in Ireland – where there were three alcohol-related deaths a day in 2013, according to the Health Research Board – then increasing the price is the most effective option.

“Generally, the cheaper alcohol is, the more likely people are to consume it,” said Deirdre
Mongan, a research officer at the Health Research Board.

But outdoor drinking might still be a bit of nuisance, says Barry.”Things can get out of hand and people litter the place, you know. It can be potentially intimidating for some people, for older people in particular.”

The challenge as Lacey sees it, is how to create rules that encourage responsible drinking in parks and such.

“I’ve been in parks where families are sitting around and the parents might be having a glass of wine and it’s not doing anybody any harm,” says Lacey.

“But how do you draw regulations for that, to not allow a bunch of messers drinking?” he said.
Cuffe says that, instead of hassling Dublin’s outdoor drinkers, we should reinforce the law that prohibits publicans from selling drink to people who are already drunk.

That might be a better measure to curb public drunkenness, he says. “These don’t allow for sale of alcohol to someone who is clearly inebriated and yet this law’s being broken every day of the week in pubs around the city.”

A Buzz

In some cities in the United States, officials have rolled back public-drinking bans and brought in zones for drinking to enliven quieter parts of downtown neighbourhoods.

Over the last few years, cities in Ohio, Mississippi, and Nebraska have created areas around
convention centres, or museums, where visitors can drink as they walk, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts, which tracks changes in state policies there.

Dublin seems to have a few of those spaces, de facto. There’s the “Pav” in Trinity College and the lock outside the Barge Pub on the Grand Canal, says Fahy.

To him, it would make sense to make those spaces official. “I don’t see why it would be a problem,” says Fahy.

“I don’t know from a policing point of view but it feels like they’re sort of aware of it and let it go on,” he says.

Lacey says that it would need some thought before the bylaws might be relaxed, and designated public drinking areas were given the okay. “There’d have to be the willingness of the gardaí to be called upon as well,” he says.

Some are happy with the bylaws as they are, though – and note that organisers can get licences for drinking areas outside during special events, or sporting events.

At the moment, you might see parts of streets cordoned off for drinking during festivals, says Gerry Farrell, the operations manager of Dublin Town, a group for city-centre businesses.

“Where things are well-managed, with outdoor events that have all the appropriate things in place to provide for people to have a drink in a well-managed, well-regulated environment, we’re happy with that,” said Farrell.

Others hold to the view that drinking should be inside. “It’s our view that drinking should happen in licensed premises, in the home and nowhere else,” says Donal O’Keeffe, chairperson of the Licensed Vintners Association.

He says that “uncontrolled drinking would be a disaster for the city […] It leads to public order
issues, toilet facility issues. The city takes a beating.”

There are signs that the council sees some public drinking as inevitable, and has taken measures to deal with some of the side effects.

Council staff have put extra bags along railings in local parks in Ballyfermot and along the Grand Canal in that part of town, says independent Councillor Vincent Jackson.

There’s less litter and less anti-social behaviour, says Jackson. “People actually became an awful lot more responsible.”

He said that some locals went mad, asking why they were giving them bags. “I said, ‘Hold on, they’re going to be drinking away there anyway.’”

“If it’s going to happen, you might as well have it in a responsible manner as opposed to what’s happening at the present time where kids and adults are drinking anywhere outdoors, particularly in the summer months,” he said.

Drinking Areas

On a recent Wednesday, a row of people sat on the wooden seating on the boardwalk on the north side of the Liffey. There was light rain, and a cloudy sky, and a couple of kayaks trailed up the river.

A girl was huddled at the end of the row, with a can of cider, waiting out the day until she could call the freephone again, to get a homeless bed for the night.

There are a few of them who come there three or four times a week, said Martin Tobin, sat with the group. He has silver hair, and says he isn’t drinking – although the others are.

They just come “to chill out”, he said and generally, nobody bothers them. “If you have it covered up, or a plastic mixer bottle, they don’t bother you,” he says.

He says that many of those who come there to drink clean up their own rubbish. “They have
respect for you then.”

There are a few couples scattered along the benches along the rest of the sidewalk. But the city is quiet. “It’s just peaceful and relaxing,” says the girl.

A few moment after she speaks, a tall garda with a high ponytail walks towards them. “You’re not scooping are you?” she says, to the girl.

The girl hesitates, then says no. But the guard checks under her arm, finds a can, and tells the group that it’s time for them to jog on.

There’s a hint of selective enforcement, but they don’t seem too bothered by the need to pack up and leave. “They’ll joke with you,” says Tobin.

When laws are enforced with considerable discretion, there’s often the fear that some groups will be stopped more than others.

In New York in 2012, staff working for a judge in Brooklyn analysed the public-drinking summonses that came before them. In the month previous, 85 percent of the summonses had been issued to black people and Latinos, and 4 percent to white people, according to a New York Times report from the time. According to census data, Brooklyn’s population was about 36 percent white.

There don’t seem to have been studies here of whether some groups or ages are stopped more by gardai in Dublin for public drinking than others.

“It hasn’t been something that I’ve noticed,” said Social Democrat Councillor Gary Gannon, who is also on the Central Area Joint Policing Committee.

Cuffe of the Green Party says that Dublin City Council needs to work more closely with An Garda Síochána to deal with anti-social behaviour in public spaces.

“This is a very vexed issue, though,” he says. “There is clearly a lot of problem drinking in our public spaces and yet An Garda Síochána tend not to intervene unless there’s a risk of criminal activity taking place.”

For the council’s part, it might be time to re-examine the current bylaws, and see how they’ve been working in practice.

“But post-work evaluation is not that strong at council,” says Cuffe. He doesn’t think that excessive drinking should be allowed inside a pub or outside on the streets, he said. “But I don’t have any objection to someone sitting outside on a sunny day with a bottle of beer in their hand.”