The UK policy document The Government’s Alcohol Strategy (hereafter the GAS) was published in March 2012, just weeks after the Department of Health in the Republic of Ireland published the Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy (2012; hereafter the SGR). Despite its ambiguous title, the SGR is solely concerned with alcohol: specifically with how alcohol might be integrated into Ireland’s longstanding National Drugs Strategy, which prior to this had dealt only with illicit drugs. In a short commentary piece such as this it would be tedious, if not impossible, to present a point-by-point comparison of the two documents, but it might be of interest to readers in both jurisdictions to draw some broad comparisons between them. This will be attempted here by looking at the GAS and the SGR from three separate, if somewhat overlapping, perspectives: (1) their primary ideological content; (2) their policy status – either as proposals to government or government approved strategies and (3) the likelihood that all or most of the recommended strategies will be implemented.