Irish Students Think that 5 or More Drinks Per Night is "Normal"

I read on the Irish Times website that a new study had just been published stating that university students thought having five or more drinks in a night out was "normal", which confirmed that there is a binge-drinking culture in Ireland. To clarify, 5 or more drinks to them equaled a bottle and a quarter of wine per person.

And it's not even the "how much" as much as the "how". 71 percent of males drank the alcohol in a "harmful manner". This isn't students consuming this much over the course of the evening; it's all at once, trying to get blackout drunk.

The rest of the article is here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0925/1224324360349.html

I thought that with the drinking age being lower here and with drinking being more of a part of Ireland's culture, that I would be avoiding the binge-drinking culture of America. Apparently that isn't the case. The bar on campus has beer pong tournaments and "twisted Tuesdays", and our history professor seemed to be evoking fond memories when he described how freshmen inevitably drink until they pass out in the first few weeks of college.

I can't be the only one who doesn't think that drinking until you black out is a good time. Can I?