Chapters 21 and 22

In chapter 21 Monagan continued his quest of finding sponsors for his Irish magazine project. This time around he knocked on the door of the managing director of Ulster Television. (today it is called UTV- for further information take a look at- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTV)

What amazed Monagan about the director was his approachable manner. He was not only welcoming, but also decent, promising Monagan that he would do everything that was in his power to help. How rare is to find such directors today. Most of them are, after all, nowadays stern and impose everything they wish with an iron fist. Or is it just my stereotypical belief to hold directors to be like that.

Anyway, the family are making big steps forward and have decided not to let problems crush their dreams. Together with this decision came the realisation that the life their were leading in Ireland was much more rich yet very unpredictable.

In chapter 22 we (the readers) are lead into the mysterious yet fascinating world of hurling. If you wish to find out more about this unusual sport visit http://www.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/gaa/introhur.html

Apart from that, Monagan wrote again about the "relationship" of the Irish with alcohol. What made me rub my eyes in disbelief were some of the statistics Monagan presented in the book-

20 percent (!!) of the Irish children take their first drink by the age of nine.

Ireland has the highest rate of teenage binge-drinking in Europe.

I would say that these statistics and the whole problem the Irish have with drinking is paradoxical. Surely anyone would suppose that the poorer the country is, the higher the rate of alcohol abuse, but Ireland is a very rich country. So how come? I'm certainly not the right person to say, but my guess is that most Irish people do consume drink moderately, and that the young have started to consume it so massively because of peer pressure, which is the case with the young in most other developed and developing countries.

Besides peer pressure as the main factor of the young drinking, there is this feeling of invincibility between the 13 to 18 years old. This nothing-can-happen-to-me syndrom can have grave consequences as the young usually don't have the slighest clue how dangerous alcohol can be.

However, the question is- How to make the young aware od the drawbacks to alcohol? Advertisements and campaigns are, in my opinion, not enough. So, what else?

Honestly, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that there is always a limit on any action that is taken against alcohol abuse. If someone, for example, falls under the spell of "false" friends it is very hard to reason with him/her. Ultimately, it all boils down to raising the awarness of the young about the treacherous alcohol through the good, old means of advertisements.