Economic Effects of Prohibition in Ireland?

irish_thumb.jpg


What if sometime during the 1930s, Eamon De Valera gets inspired by some of the Irish-American Diaspora who favored Prohibition in the US and successfully implemented similar laws in the Republic?(handwavium)

How might this effect economic growth going forward?
 
Last edited:
Wasn't it mainly the Irish immigrants though who had a problem with Prohibition due to alcohol being a significant part of their lifestyle?
 
He wouldn't.

Even with an inspiration from the Diaspora, De Valera didn't rise to power until 1932, by which time enough evidence exists to prove that Prohibition wouldn't work.

To do so would be viewed as nothing short of an attack upon the one part of the Irish economy that actually was profitable at the time and would be political suicide.

The only way this could happen would be ASB.
 
He wouldn't.

Even with an inspiration from the Diaspora, De Valera didn't rise to power until 1932, by which time enough evidence exists to prove that Prohibition wouldn't work.

To do so would be viewed as nothing short of an attack upon the one part of the Irish economy that actually was profitable at the time and would be political suicide.

The only way this could happen would be ASB.

Well that section of the economy has already been shattered from the US prohibition, with a massive decline that in terms of volume I think we are only now getting back to in terms of production.
 
Well that section of the economy has already been shattered from the US prohibition, with a massive decline that in terms of volume I think we are only now getting back to in terms of production.

Huh, I thought it was still doing well.

Ok point taken, but the rest of it still stands.
 
Wasn't it mainly the Irish immigrants though who had a problem with Prohibition due to alcohol being a significant part of their lifestyle?

And on the other side, the forces of prohibition had a not insignificant overlap with the forces of anti-Catholicism, which in early C20 America pretty much meant anti-Irish. I'd imagine this connection was widely known to Irish-Americans, and thus there would have been very few of them supporting prohibition.
 
If any politician is able to get prohibition to Ireland there will be Second Irish Civil War. They want drink their beer and whiskey. No, I don't think that any Irish politician who care even bit about his political career would dare even think prohibition.
 
Huh, I thought it was still doing well.

Ok point taken, but the rest of it still stands.

It was larger than the Scottish industry up until the US Prohibition, but after that it struggled. The Scots upped their exports to the rest of the Empire/Commonwealth to offset the closing of the US market until it was reopened, but the Irish producers didn't. So you had a huge reduction in numbers of companies then (for example right now Jameson's still still produces most of the actual spirits at the moment).
 
What if sometime during the 1930s, Eamon De Valera gets inspired by some of the Irish-American Diaspora who favored Prohibition in the US and successfully implemented similar laws in the Republic?(handwavium)

How might this effect economic growth going forward?

Irish Economic growth will make a giant leap forward - in the UK - as the number of Irish 'brickies' in London and Liverpool will easily quadruple overnight. And by 1980 we might see the British Labour Party being headed by a third generation Liverpudlian named o'Rourke or Kennedy...

Belfast might however still be Fxxxed up for decades to come.
 
With Prohibition in the 1930s Irish Republic, what about Crime ?

You will see similar effect in Irland like US during Prohibition
illegal alcohol production and smuggle and selling of homebrew and clandestine pubs.
off course the Irish Republic try to fight that, but sooner or later the police will face organized Irish criminal organization
with connections to Irish criminals even Mafia in USA.

this must have some impact on Irish Economics ?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but Temperance in Ireland and elsewhere was a Protestant thing. I doubt a newly independent Ireland would want to emulate a Protestant movement, indeed I'd guess it would do the exact opposite to prove a point.
 
Well, some people might look at their history books :D aka the Return of the Irish Ether Craze:

County Derry, Ireland, 1880.

During the 1830s Ireland was awash in alcohol, much of it produced locally in response to high alcohol import taxes imposed by the ruling British government. While many locals were assiduously distilling illegal poitín from potatoes or malted barley, a backlash against alcohol was also growing. The leading figure in this Irish temperance movement was a Catholic priest named Father Theobald Matthew, who in 1838 established the Total Abstinence Society. Its credo was simple: People who joined did not merely promise to consume in moderation, but took The Pledge, a commitment to complete abstinence from alcohol from that day forward. This simple approach was remarkably effective: In a single day more than twenty thousand drinkers were reported to have taken an oath of total abstinence at Nenagh, in County Tipperary. In fact, it is estimated that by 1844 roughly three million people, or about half the adult population of Ireland, had taken The Pledge.

Not surprisingly, some people looked for a way to keep to the letter of The Pledge while violating its spirit. One of these was a Dr. Kelly of Draperstown, County Derry, who realized that as a nonalcoholic tipple, ether filled the bill nicely. Ether is a highly volatile liquid that may be produced by mixing sulfuric acid with alcohol, as discovered by the German chemist Valerius Cordus around 1540. The inhalation of ether vapors leads to effects that range from euphoria to stupor to unconsciousness. In fact, ether was the first drug ever to be used for general anesthesia when in 1842 Dr. Crawford Long of Jefferson, Georgia, employed it during the removal of a tumor from the neck of a patient. Dr. Long had been introduced to ether as a recreational drug during "ether frolic" parties while a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania and had the insight to imagine its practical use during surgery.

Dr. Kelly, desperate to become intoxicated while maintaining The Pledge, realized that not only could ether vapors be inhaled, but liquid ether could be swallowed. Around 1845 he began consuming tiny glasses of ether, and then started dispensing these to his patients and friends as a nonalcoholic libation. It wasn't long before it became a popular beverage, with one priest going so far as to declare that ether was "a liquor on which a man could get drunk with a clean conscience." In some respects ingesting ether is less damaging to the system than severe alcohol intoxication. Its volatility-ether is a liquid at room temperature but a gas at body temperature-dramatically speeds its effects.

Dr. Ernest Hart wrote that "the immediate effects of drinking ether are similar to those produced by alcohol, but everything takes place more rapidly; the stages of excitement, mental confusion, loss of muscular control, and loss of consciousness follow each other so quickly that they cannot be clearly separated." Recovery is similarly rapid. Not only were ether drunks who were picked up by the police on the street often completely sober by the time they reached the station, but they suffered no hangovers.

Ether drinking spread rapidly throughout Ireland, particularly in the North, and the substance soon could be purchased from grocers, druggists, publicans, and even traveling salesmen. Because ether was produced in bulk for certain industrial uses, it could also be obtained quite inexpensively. Its low price and rapid action meant than even the poorest could afford to get drunk several times a day on it. By the 1880s ether, distilled in England or Scotland, was being imported and widely distributed to even the smallest villages. Many Irish market towns would "reek of the mawkish fumes of the drug" on fair days when "its odor seems to cling to the very hedges and houses for some time." In 1891, Norman Kerr, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, painted a vivid picture of pervasive ether intoxication:

"Sturdy Irish lads and beautiful Irish lasses, brimful of Hibernian wit, are slaves to ether drunkenness. The mother may be seen with her daughters and maybe a neighboring Irishwoman or two at a friendly ether "bee." The habit has become so general that small shopkeepers treat the children who have been sent to purchase some article, with a small dose of ether, and schoolmasters have detected ether on the breaths of children from 10 to 14 (or even younger) on their arrival at school."

It is interesting to note that, even at the peak of the Irish ether-drinking craze, the possession, sale, and private use of ether remained legal. The first attempt to control the problem involved adulterating industrial ether with naphtha, which has an odor and taste even more offensive than ether itself. This was an utter failure-people just blended it with sugar and spices to mask the taste, held their noses, and tossed it back. Ether drinking in Ireland was finally curtailed in 1891 when the British government classified ether as a poison and enforced strict controls on its sale and possession, thus dramatically restricting its distribution and use. The practice lingered for a few years longer but appeared to be completely abolished by the 1920s.

Cheap, quick, and no hangover afterwards? No wonder ether was so popular. However, before you head out the door to score some, it's worth mentioning a few of the downsides. These include a truly awful smell and taste, coupled with a strong burning sensation while the foul stuff is going down. Plus, it makes you drool like a Saint Bernard dog on a hot summer day, not to mention stimulating truly monumental burps and farts. These aren't normal emissions-they are laden with highly flammable ether vapors. You can imagine what happened when an ether drinker would light up a pipe and belch or sit down by an open fire and break wind. Severe burns at either end of the alimentary canal were a common hazard.
Source:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-compass-pleasure/201106/the-irish-ether-drinking-craze-0
 
Top