A binge-drinking culture could be behind Northern Ireland’s high rates of heart disease, according to a new study.

The study, which compared drinking patterns of middle-aged men from three cities in France with those in Belfast, found that the volume of alcohol consumed over a week in both countries was almost identical. However, in Belfast, alcohol tended to be drunk over one or two days rather than regularly throughout the week, as in France. The research also found that the average amount of alcohol consumed in Belfast over the weekend was about two to three times higher than in France.

Over a 10-year period, the researchers assessed the alcohol consumption of 9,758 men from the cities of Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse – and in Belfast. The participants were free from heart disease when the research started in 1991 and were between the ages of 50 to 59 years....