Tight Little Island
Posted on 12/09/2001 6:43:12 AM PST by dighton
SIXTY years after the SS Politician famously ran aground in the Hebrides with its vast cargo of Scotch, islanders on Barra are still living up to their Whisky Galore! reputation.
A health survey has revealed that almost three-quarters of locals down the equivalent of six whiskies "on a typical day", making the island one of the hardest-drinking areas of Scotland.
The extraordinary figures for Barra - where the original Whisky Galore! movie, starring Basil Radford and Joan Greenwood, was filmed - have stunned health chiefs in the Western Isles who commissioned the survey.
The island was made famous by Sir Compton Mackenzie, who penned his Hebridean farce after the SS Politician ran aground on the Island of Eriskay, opposite his Barra home, in 1941 with 9,000 cases of whisky.
Much to the annoyance of pursuing customs men, islanders raided the ship and hid thousands of bottles on both Eriskay and Barra.
It appears the liking for alcohol has diminished little since then. Western Isles Health Board found that 71% of Barra residents who responded consumed more than six units "on a typical drinking day" - more than double the government’s recommended intake.
The figure for Barra, which has a population of around 1,300 and three hotel bars, is much higher than the 15.8% recorded in Lewis, the largest and most populated of the Outer Hebridean isles.
Over the islands as a whole, 60% of men under 30 confessed to drinking six units of alcohol or more each day.
The survey found the main reason for drinking was for "enjoyment" and "to be social", but many islanders would like to give up or cut down.
Father Calum MacLellan, a retired priest and a native of Eriskay, said: "The thing about Barra is that you have got a lot of young people who are fishing and who have a bit of money in their pockets.
"It’s an ongoing problem throughout all of the islands, as well as under-age drinking. We have people who work on the oil rigs who are working away for long spells and who are then off and like to get loose. I don’t think that life on the oil rigs is any picnic. I suppose the thing to do when you come back is to head for the nearest pub."
He added: "I love whisky. Most sensible people would like a dram now and again. It’s part of our way of life here."
But retired Barra postman Niall Macpherson, 67, who as a boy used to visit Sir Compton, said partying on the island was, if anything, decreasing.
"I don’t think there are as many ceilidhs as there used to be. I doubt these figures - for one thing the booze is too dear now," said Macpherson, who fondly remembers Sir Compton sitting with a bottle of malt beside him.
"I have not seen too many drunks here over the last 15 years or so. But I do think drink is safer than cannabis."
Dr Michael George, the health board’s director of public health, said it was difficult to really know how many people were drinking at unhealthy levels.
An earlier joint survey by the Western Isles Health Board and its drug and alcohol action team found that drinking among children in the Western Isles had increased from 81% in 1994 to 85.5% this year.
It showed that children normally started drinking around the age of 13 or 14 but that the number taking alcohol at age 10 was "significant".
Tight Little Island
And all those cockleshells on the 'runway':
The government recommends 3 shots a day?
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