In this chapter, I examine the relationship between the gender power balance and changes in respect of the consumption of alcohol in Ireland. Drawing from the work of Norbert Elias, I explain how and why the power relation between men and women became less unequal from the early 1900s through to the late 1950s, though the extent and pace of this dynamic varied and was more modest in comparison to the power shift which occurred posted 1960. The effect of this was that emancipatory changes around drinking were mainly confined to women from specific social cohorts during that period. From the early 1960s, as the structure of the power relation shifted again in the direction of more equal relations, tensions between the genders was reflected in new power struggles over the social spaces in which drinking occurred and in the type of glass one should drink from. Despite the emergence of less unequal power relations, men continued to have a model setting function in relation to alcohol consumption.