It’s often said that ‘the Irish love to drink’ – we are known internationally for many things, but the pub is way up there.  Whereas many of us drink to socialise, many of us simply drink to get drunk and then keep on drinking.  The effects are scary.

While a cohort of young men have long been known to get drunk, ‘locked’, ‘blotto’, ‘out of their tree’ – a sizeable number of young women are now joining their male colleagues in getting ‘off their face’.

Our young adults are now often avoiding the pub, choosing to drink at home, buying cheaper alcohol in supermarkets and then heading out to clubs or late bars.

But how much are they drinking, and what effect is it having on them and those around them?

Over four nights Prime Time filmed on the streets of Ireland – looking at what really happens in the early hours.

We spent two nights in Dublin and one each in Carlow and Waterford.  We decided to film during the week as opposed to weekends.  We used secret cameras to walk amongst night revellers.

We saw many drunk and rowdy people.  The majority did not cause trouble for others, but we did see many shocking, unsightly and scary scenes.  We saw men and women urinating in doorways, other people vomiting on the street, and we saw people being taken away in ambulances having collapsed unconscious.  We saw people stumble into traffic.  In Dublin and Carlow we witnessed random violence on a shocking scale – young men being punched repeatedly in the head, and some being kicked in the head as they lay on the ground.  In some places we saw a good Garda presence, in others we saw no Gardaí whatsoever.