One of the more useful things Uncle Facebook does is remind you of birthdays. Today, for example, it told me that my friend Sara was celebrating hers. Of course I wished her happy birthday but then I added the line:

Did you get the cans in?

Obviously she replied saying:

Dutch Gold all the way

Oh, we had the laughs.

Two educated middle-aged people falling into the Good Friday trap, even if it was tongue-in-cheek.

As I stood at the bus stop yesterday people passed by with their cases of booze to get them over the tricky 36 hours when shutters are down in pubs and off-licences.

All week there’s been scare stories of rural pubs trying to get midnight-2am Saturday morning extensions.

Some of us get the travel bug as trains are allowed serve booze.

We’ve always wanted to see more of the country. This mass paranoia goes back to a 1927 law which banned the sale of alcohol on Good Friday, Christmas Day and, until 1964, St Patrick’s Day. Of course they were three key days for Catholic Ireland and the ban was there for that purpose.

The religious significance has lessened over the years, rightly or wrongly. The argument has moved on to the tourist angle. Should Brand Ireland be turning away tourists because of this kink? Then again nobody has spoken about the workers who can take the day off today. However we can’t escape the frenzy.

I mentioned Christmas day earlier. Who remembers angst-ridden mothers buying humungous amounts of sliced pans to get us through the day? Is it something weirdly Irish? The need to buy? Anything that stops that urge, and we panic. Bread, booze, boom time houses... is there a link?

I have an open mind on whether the ban should be lifted but if it goes what will replace it in our collective anxiety?

We’re a great little country, aren’t we?