Photograph by
Michael Fajardo
The “neknomination” drinking game that has rapidly risen to popularity across Facebook and YouTube over the last two months has now claimed two lives.
In the game, an individual is challenged to “down” a pint or other alcoholic drink on video within 24 hours, and then nominate one or more of their friends to do the same. It has found virality online with some people managing to perform the challenge in unusual locations and sometimes more dangerously with large amounts of spirits such as vodka or gin.
Yesterday, Jonny Byrne, 19, from County Carlow, died in the River Barrow after reportedly taking part in the challenge, with Dublin DJ, Ross Cummings dying in his sleep the night before.
Byrne’s father Joe made an emotional appeal to get people to think about the consequences of playing neknomination, saying:
“It has cost my son his life, the whole family is devastated and our lives will never be the same again. I hope this message is heeded, because for us, life is virtually over”
Ireland’s Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, explained her concern about the danger the game poses to young people to Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, calling it a lethal combination or peer pressure and excessive alcohol consumption.
2 Comments
my 15 year old son went to a party saturday night without our consent and was supposed to be at a neighbours playing xbox.he was nominated and drank half a bottle of red wine 2 cans of lager and half a litre of vodka in a six pint jug,luckily for us all his friend was sober and got him home in his mums car in an unconscious state where we called an ambulance.that 40 minute wait watching your son vomit convulse and froth at the mouth was the most terrifying thing i have seen for a long while,his blood alcohol level was 171 nearly 6 times the driving limit luckily i am a nurse so knew what to do,but the panic set in when the blue lights in the ambulance came on as his blood pressure dropped and his lips went blue,please please talk to your teens and warn them of the consequence and danger as today could have been a different day completely for our family and our condolenses to all victims families as no doubt there will be more
So, where is the “hold a gun to someone’s head” part of this game? There isn’t one? This is really just an excuse for people to freely choose to be stupid?