Health researchers are calling on Irish journalists to come clean about the number of people who die or are killed each year while under the influence of alcohol.

A new study published in the journal Alcohol & Alcoholism has found that alcohol-related deaths are greatly under-reported in Irish newspapers.

It also found that newspaper reports were inclined to use terms like "out socialising" when in fact the deceased person had been drunk.

According to the research team, in 100 newspaper reports of 43 deaths not one article revealed that the person was drunk.

Bobby Smyth of the School of Medicine in TCD says it is in the public interest to report when a person's death is alcohol related, but observes there's often a balancing act between that and "respecting the dignity of the individual who has died and the grief of the family":