{"id":438409,"date":"2026-05-08T08:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/438409\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:53:07","slug":"readers-on-pre-flight-drinking-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/438409\/","title":{"rendered":"Readers on pre-flight drinking \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Noel Lawn was awaiting a flight back to Cork from Seville Airport when he spotted a man in his 20s dressed as a bishop.<\/p>\n

Describing a \u201crowdy\u201d group of men surrounding this bishop, the 70-year-old retired GP says they were \u201cabsolutely going for it, they were downing pints. Everybody was turning around looking at them\u201d, describing fellow passengers \u201crolling their eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lawn is originally from the United Kingdom, but settled in west Cork five years ago. Flying once or twice each year, he says he has witnessed drunk passengers in airports <\/a>\u201cat all hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a GP, I think it\u2019s really odd when people start drinking heavily out of hours,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While he is not \u201canti-alcohol\u201d, Lawn has \u201cseen the damage\u201d caused by it throughout his medical career, noting a \u201chigh crossover with antisocial behaviour\u201d, particularly when holidays enter the mix.<\/p>\n

He was one of dozens of readers to respond to an Irish Times call-out on the issue of pre-flight drinking <\/a>after Ryanair chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary said airports should ban the sale of alcohol.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary calls for ban on early morning pre-flight airport drinkingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary said Ryanair is diverting nearly one flight each day on average because of bad behaviour on board, which he linked to pre-flight alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n

Most readers, including one who said they \u201crarely agree with O\u2019Leary about anything\u201d, agreed with the Ryanair boss.<\/p>\n

One described being \u201cvomited on\u201d by a \u201cdrunk passenger\u201d, while others likened early mornings at Dublin Airport during the busy holiday season to \u201cTemple Bar on a Friday night\u201d.<\/p>\n

Readers recalled groups of \u201cvery drunk<\/a>\u201d men vaping and shouting at each other mid-flight, who continued to be served alcohol and were \u201cunable to speak properly by the time we landed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others simply described pre-flight drinking <\/a>in the early hours as \u201clunacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some, on the other hand, like Mary Mullany, have found that a \u201cglass or two\u201d of wine before a flight can be \u201cvery helpful\u201d with sleep and reducing jet lag, believing some passengers \u201cruin it for everyone else\u201d.<\/p>\n

None of her flights has been disrupted by passengers under the influence, she says, adding: \u201cBut I\u2019ve seen people knocking back pints … and I\u2019m thinking: \u2018I hope I\u2019m not on their flight\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 64-year-old from Palmerstown, Dublin 20, who flies a couple of times each year, believes a few \u201cwell-publicised convictions might make people think twice about their behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

She, like several other readers, believes airlines should have the right to breathalyse passengers before boarding.<\/p>\n

Anne Browne, a woman in her 50s living in Co Donegal, believes airlines should go a step further and ban the sale of alcohol during flights.<\/p>\n

Many of the issues surrounding disruptive and \u201csometimes even violent passengers\u201d could be eradicated if aircraft were alcohol free, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen people getting on the plane who shouldn\u2019t have been getting on the plane, and I\u2019ve seen people drink on the plane when they shouldn\u2019t be drinking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

John Scully, a 72-year-old originally from Mount Merrion in Dublin, has lived in Draguignan, France, with his wife since he retired in 2011.<\/p>\n

Despite regularly flying back to Dublin to visit family, he says he has never seen passengers \u201cpie-eyed\u201d before or during flights from Nice.<\/p>\n

He believes it is a UK and Irish issue, and while he \u201ccan understand\u201d O\u2019Leary\u2019s problem, with passengers getting \u201cover exuberant\u201d on early morning flights, he does not believe in \u201cnanny regulations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to discipline ourselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should be able to drink responsibly if they want to. Why they would want to at six in the morning, I\u2019ve no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, Noel Lawn was awaiting a flight back to Cork from Seville Airport when he spotted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,1899,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-438409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ryanair","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}