Alcohol manufacturers and retailers and students who organise college Rag weeks are evading their responsibilities to students, according to Sligo priest Fr. Pat Lombard.
He claimed that alcohol had been sold to students during a recent Rag week in a local college at what he called, "ridiculously low prices” and to students who were already very drunk - even in some cases to the extent of being in an alcoholic haze and not knowing where they were going.
Fr Lombard, who is attached to Sligo Cathedral, said, "We can pretend we do not see this exploitation of young people but drinks companies, the licence trade and those who organise Rag weeks all had a responsibility in this regard.”
It saddened him deeply, he said that Rag week was a week of excess, with many drinking far more alcohol than they could handle.
A lot of publicans were, "always so very responsible," but others were not, and the students themselves were not so much to blame for getting too drunk because they were, "still on the steep learning curve of life."
But Fr Lombard said he wondered if those who sold cut-price alcohol to young people who were already too drunk, or to those who volunteered to buy it for them, if they would do the same if it were their own sons, daughters, brothers or sisters that were involved.
And responsibility rested on the wider public also, he declared.
“Each and every one of us has a responsibility; we can overlook the problem or pretend we do not see this exploitation of young people but each young person is somebody’s brother or sister. As Christians, we are called to see each person we meet as our brother or sister and to respect and care and love that person accordingly,” Fr Lombard went on.
“We fail to do so when we pretend a problem does not exist or profit from the weakness and vulnerability of others, especially the young."