I've read opinions by people over there that it might be a good thing, that isolation is causing the mostly bachelor farmers more problems than drunk driving would, that the suicide rate there is very high. The roads are said to be rough, keeping speeds low and the potential for disaster low with them.

I just hope they defined which roads and when so that the farmers won't go to one of the cities on holiday and think they can drive drunk there, too.

... I can't see that hitting the bottle is going to help your "bachelor farmers" with either rural isolation or depression.

The geopolitics of the north of my county, Northumberland, are not, I imagine, that different from that of many rural Irish counties but there'd be hell to pay if any county councillor suggested this.

The Skin

and that's what the thinking is, healthier than getting sodden at home in total isolation.

Of course, the real problem is that the rural farming life is too miserable a life to attract women. There is nothing like a family, no matter how annoying, to destroy isolation.

over the course of an evening is not that much. Dunno what strength Guinness is over in the Emerald Isle, but the stuff they send over here is pretty weak, it would take me about six of them to even get a buzz.