Temperance still relevant

May has brought a double whammy for the temperance movement in Ireland – first it emerged that the Pioneers are in financial difficulties and now, a statue of a leader of the temperance movement in Ireland is to be removed from our capital’s main street to make way for a Luas tramline.

“Fr Matthew founded the temperance movement and was known as the Apostle of Temperance.  We don’t own the Fr Matthew statue, so we have no say.  We wouldn’t like it to be moved, obviously,” Padraig Brady, Chief Executive Officer, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (Pioneers) told ciNews. 

“A lot of people think Fr Mathew founded the Pioneers - he didn’t but he would have been the inspiration for the Jesuit priest who did found our organisation.”

The Pioneers was founded in Gardiner Street Church by Fr James Cullen SJ.  Now, more than a century later, it is fighting for survival as it has run into financial difficulties.  One month ago it launched an appeal for donations.

“Our main worry at the moment is for our appeal to be successful because if we don’t have the money we can’t provide our services and could have to close the office,” said Padraig Brady.  

“Our plans for the funds are obviously to assist in our day to day expenses.  We also plan to revamp our own website.  We don’t have a central database so we will work on that.  Also we want to employ someone so we can breathe an air of enthusiasm into our centres.”

He explained how the organisation wants to be more active and progressive without taking away from the central aim, which is moderation.  This is the modern word for temperance according to Brady who explained, “Not only is that in the use of alcohol but moderation in lifestyle.  It is as much for the individual Pioneer as for anyone else but the Pioneers themselves take the added commitment to abstain from alcohol.  Alcohol, the same as other gifts, is okay in moderation, it’s the same with food, and it’s the same with technology.”

The statue of Fr Theobald Mathew, a Cork-born Capuchin Friar who led the great temperance movement from 1839 to 1856 will be removed from O’Connell Street if approval is given for plans currently before An Bórd Pleanála for a single tramline on O’Connell Street’s central median.  

The idea is to link the Green and Red Luas lines and extend the line out to Broombridge on the Maynooth train line via Broadstone. 

A spokesman for the Railway Procurement Agency said that organisation is in discussions with Dublin City Council and the Capuchins about the relocation of the statue.  

Fr Dan Joe O'Mahony, who is associated with the Fr Mathew website and Blanchardstown Oratory, told ciNews that he hopes to meet with the relevant people in the days ahead.

Even if the An Bórd Pleanála hearing, which got underway this Wednesday, approves the plans, the Government has still to make a decision on which infrastructure projects to fund.  

This decision is not expected until by September.

The limestone monument, officially named The Apostle of Temperance Centenary Statue, was sculpted by Mary Redmond and dates back to 1890 when the foundation stone was laid, though it was not formally unveiled until three years later.  

It was funded by public subscription.

Father Mathew was born near Golden, County Tipperary, in 1790.  He studied in Maynooth 

and Dublin before entering the Capuchin Order and later joined their mission in Cork, where he began an abstinence society. 

At its core was 'the Pledge' - a solemn promise to abstain from alcohol, and in less than nine months an estimated 150,000 names were enrolled as taking 'the Pledge' and the movement spread across the country.  

The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was founded a few decades later at the turn of the century and its members also take ‘the pledge’.

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