Why is it that adults in Ireland are not trusted to have a beer in a park and behave themselves? Go to plenty of other European cities, and drinking in public places in moderation does not lead to anarchy. Society does not collapse when a bunch of people drink in a park in London or grab a Wegbier (a beer while you’re strolling or travelling from one place to another) in Berlin.

In the summer of 2020, the pandemic and outdoor socialising drew attention to the rarely-discussed rules around consuming alcohol in public spaces. In the Dáil at the time, Leo Varadkar seemed to split hairs, saying that drinking in public spaces was not against the law. His remarks may have appeared a bit “well, actually”, but Varadkar was correct in saying that drinking in a public place is not illegal under national law. It’s a local bylaw issue. He also pointed out that being drunk and disorderly is an entirely different matter in law, which it is.

Leaving the law aside for a moment, there is a big difference between consuming alcohol in a public place and being hammered in a public place. Bylaws on consuming alcohol in a public place ultimately express a pre-emptive approach. The impulse for banning public drinking across the board assumes that some consumption of alcohol in a public place will lead to some public drunkenness or “antisocial behaviour”, and therefore all of it is banned. But this is not........

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