The three-day begora bender

There’s a week and a bit to go until the end of Lent and my long abstention from alcohol.

It’s been a frustrating time for someone who writes a drinks blog, but has satisfied my perfunctory approach to Roman Catholicism and given me the opportunity to reflect on the role that alcohol plays in my life for good and ill.

Now that’s almost over, I’m making plans to catapult myself from the wagon and dive swan-like into a pool of ale. The tomb will be empty and so will the liquor cabinet as I make up for lost time.

Ironically one of the reasons we have the beer we know and love today is because those sainted monks of Europe needed something to keep body and soul together during Lent when fasting rules were stricter, meals fewer and all meat, fish, dairy products and oil were forbidden.

Imagine having to survive on nothing all day but mugs of foaming beer. No wonder the Church used to be so powerful.

Strictly speaking, Lent lasts 40 days meaning that Sundays are free for feasting and boozing.

I’ve always wisely ignored this get-out clause and others, such as the dispensation to celebrate St Patrick’s Day by getting blarneyed.

Incidentally, the Catholic bishops of Ireland have been given permission to celebrate St Patrick’s day tomorrow, March 15, rather than the traditional 17th, which falls this year in the solemnity of Holy Week.

To the delight of the accountants at Guinness, many pubs are exploiting the confusion by holding two separate days of partying, some even going on a three-day begora bender.

Guinness has a bad rap, but sometimes it’s the perfect drink in the right place, such as at Manchester’s Peveril of the Peak pub.

However, ff you want to avoid the black stuff, you could make yourself an ‘Everybody’s Irish’ cocktail, which is 1 tsp green creme de menthe, 1 tsp green chartreuse, 2oz Irish whiskey poured into a cocktail shaker over cracked ice, stirred and strained into a martini glass garnished with a cocktail olive.