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The catholic church and the Irish temperance movement, 1838–1901

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Elizabeth Malcolm
Elizabeth Malcolm*
Affiliation:
Queen’s University of Belfast
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Extract

It is ironic that in Ireland, a country which has witnessed some of the most successful catholic-inspired crusades against alcohol consumption, the catholic church cannot be said to have been particularly favourably inclined towards the temperance movement. The Irish protestant churches and the catholic church in countries like the United States of America, England and Australia (where its membership was largely Irish) were far more forthright and consistent in their support for temperance than was the catholic church in Ireland itself. The Irish church’s ambivalent attitude to the anti-drink movement sprang from a variety of sources, some related to the nature of Irish society, others to the nature of the Irish temperance movement. To elucidate the church’s attitude and the reasons for its hostility to the anti-drink movement, I shall in this paper examine the development of the catholic temperance movement in Ireland from Father Mathew’s crusade in the 1840s to the rise of the Pioneer Total Abstinence League of the Sacred Heart in the 1890s.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 89 , 1982 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1982

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References

1 The word ‘temperance’ will be used in this paper in two different senses: firstly to describe the anti-drink movement generally, and secondly to describe that section of the movement which campaigned for moderation in drinking, as opposed to the section which demanded total abstinence. It should be obvious from the discussion in which sense the word is being used.

2 Bourke, Ulick, The life and times of the Most Rev. John MacHale (4th ed., New York, 1902), pp 137–9Google Scholar. For more detail on MacHale’s objections, see FrAugustine, , Footprints of Father Theobald Mathew (Dublin, 1947), pp 204–12.Google Scholar

3 James Dowling to Father Mathew, 31 July 1840 (Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin, Mathew correspondence, uncatalogued).

4 An accurate report of the proceedings of the Very Rev. Theobald Mathew, in Dublin, in the cause of temperance (Dublin, 1840), p. 20. For a recent discussion of Father Mathew’s principles, see Kearney, H.F., ‘Father Mathew: apostle of modernisation’ in Cosgrove, Art and McCartney, Donal (ed.), Studies in Irish history presented to R. Dudley Edwards (Dublin, 1979), pp 164-75.Google Scholar

5 For a discussion of the protestant anti-spirits movement, see Malcolm, Elizabeth L., ‘The drink question in Ireland, 1856-1901’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 1979), pp 129–201.Google Scholar

6 For a detailed analysis of the triumph of total abstinence, see Harrison, Brian, Drink and the Victorians: the temperance question in England, 1815-1872 (London, 1971), pp 107-46.Google Scholar

7 Maguire, J.F., Father Mathew: a biography (London, 1863), p. 233.Google Scholar

8 Among the mainly protestant leaders of the anti-spirits movement only Dr John Edgar of Belfast stood out strongly against total abstinence, which he considered to be heretical. For a summary of his views, see Edgar, John, Christian temperance (Belfast, [1843]).Google Scholar

9 The verse is ‘he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come’ (Acts, ch. 24, v. 5). But the catholic Douai version reads ‘he treated of justice and chastity and of the judgment to come’.

10 Suibhne, Peadar Mac (ed.), Paul Cullen and his contemporaries, with their letters from 1820 to 1902 (5 vols, Naas, 1961-77), ii, 10Google Scholar. Cullen was probably here referring to MacHale who had, several months before, denounced Father Mathew from the pulpit as a ‘vagabond friar’; see Augustine, Footprints, pp 209–10.

11 MacSuibhne, , Cullen, ii, 11.Google Scholar

12 See for example the report of the head constable of Ballickmoyler, Queen’s County, in ‘Reports of temperance enquiry, 1840’ (S.P.O., Miscellaneous papers, 1799–1868, nos 2-10 (1799–1840) IA/76/3).

13 Maguire, Father Mathew, p. 308.

14 Ibid., p. 313.

15 Maguire, Father Mathew, pp 216–17; Rogers, Patrick, Father Theobald Mathew: apostle of temperance (Dublin, 1943), pp 66-7.Google Scholar

16 Much evidence of co-operation between repealers and teetotallers can be found in the O’Connell papers; see for example Patrick Quinn to T.M. Ray, 1 Sept. 1841 (N.L.I., O’Connell papers, MS 13,622 (16)).

17 Freeman’s Journal, 8 Nov. 1841.

18 See Shaw, H.B.P., ‘The life and times of Father Theobald Mathew’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Cork, 1939), p. 280.Google Scholar

19 For a more detailed discussion of temperance and nationalism, see Malcolm, Elizabeth, ‘Temperance and Irish nationalism’ in Lyons, F.S.L. and Hawkins, R.A.J. (ed.), Ireland under the union:… essays in honour of T. W. Moody (Oxford, 1980), pp 69–114.Google Scholar

20 Maguire, Father Mathew, pp 274–5.

21 Kelly, Michael, ‘The suppression of intemperance’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 3rd ser., x, no. 7 (July 1889), p. 623 Google Scholar. Kelly, who wrote a number of important articles on catholic teetotalism in the 1890s, was archbishop of Sydney from 1911 to 1940.

22 For a detailed account of this campaign, see Malcolm, ‘The drink question in Ireland’, pp 325–408.

23 Report from the select committee on Sunday closing acts (Ireland), p. 270, H.C. 1888 (255), xix, 270.

24 Ibid., p. 285.

25 Haughton, Samuel, Memoir of James Haughton, with extracts from his private and published letters (London, 1877), p. 239 Google Scholar; Freeman’s Journal, 24 Nov. 1873.

26 Cullen to Leahy, 7 Apr. 1869 (Cashel diocesan archives, Leahy papers, no. 20), examined on microfilm in N.L.I, (pos. 6009).

27 Report from the select committee on the Sale of Liquors on Sunday (Ireland) Bill,p. 105, H.C. 1867–8 (280), xlv, 663.

28 Freeman’s Journal, 14 Feb. 1882.

29 Report from the select committee on Sunday closing acts (Ireland), 1888, p. 267.

30 Limerick Reporter, 24 Apr. 1863.

31 Quoted in O’Dwyer, Christopher, ‘The life of Dr Leahy, 1806-75’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, 1970), p. 654.Google Scholar

32 Report from the select committee on the Sale of Liquors on Sunday (Ireland) Bill, p. 24, H.C. 1867–8 (280), p. 582.

33 ‘Maynooth pastoral’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record. 1st ser., xii, no. 4 (Oct. 1875), pp 9–10.

34 Ibid.

35 Kelly ‘The suppression of intemperance’, p. 636.

36 The League of the Cross: official report of the conventions of 1875 and 1876 (Manchester, n.d.).

37 How fare the Irish people?: an address delivered by the Right Rev. Bishop Ireland, in the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Paul, Minnesota, U.S., August 2nd, 1882 (Dublin, 1882).

38 For a discussion of Manning’s motives, see Dingle, A. E. and Harrison, B. H., ‘Cardinal Manning as temperance reformer’ in Hist. Jn., xii, no. 3 (1969), pp 485–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Malcolm, ‘The drink question in Ireland’, pp 84–99, 496–7.

40 Sheehan, $$Canon P. A., Luke Delmege (London, [1901]), p. 355.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 356.

42 Rev.Vaughan, J. S., ‘Drunkenness v. teetotalism’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 3rd ser., x, no. 10 (Oct. 1889), p. 870.Google Scholar

43 Pastoral letter of the archbishop of Dublin, and the bishops ofKildare and Leighlin, Ferns and Ossory, to the clergy and laity of their dioceses (Dublin, 1890), pp 16–17.

44 Ibid., pp 19–20.

45 Ibid., p. 25.

46 Freeman’s Journal, 11 Nov. 1889.

47 Catholic Times, 22 Nov. 1889.

48 Manning to Walsh, 14 Mar. 1890 (Dublin diocesan archives, Walsh papers, 404/4/40A).

49 The Times, 11 Oct. 1889; Crowley, Mary E., ‘A social and economic study of Dublin, 1860-1914’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Dublin, 1971), appendix 8, p. iii.Google Scholar

50 Freeman’s Journal. 9 and 10 Oct. 1890.

51 Irish Catholic, 2 Feb. 1890.

52 Croke to Walsh, 3 Feb. 1890 (Dublin diocesan archives, Walsh papers, 404/4/1).

53 McKenna, Lambert, Life and work of Rev. James Aloysius Cullen, S.J. (London, 1924), pp 315-17.Google Scholar

54 The major source for Cullen’s life is McKenna’s biography, which relies heavily on private letters and diaries. However, despite extensive enquiries, these papers have not been found and may therefore be presumed destroyed. Cullen’s public writings also provide important information on the development of his ideas. Aside from pamphlets, he contributed regular articles to the Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart from 1889 to 1904 and to the Irish Catholic from 1912 to 1921.

55 FrCullen, James, ‘The Apostleship of Prayer: various works included under the Apostleship of Prayer’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 3rd ser., xiii, no. 2 (Feb. 1892), p. 131.Google Scholar

56 McKenna, Cullen, p. 101.

57 In this regard it is interesting to note that the Jesuit sermon in Portrait of the artist as a young man is based on a retreat Joyce attended at Belvedere in 1896 that was given by Cullen; see Ellmann, Richard, James Joyce (New York, 1959), p. 49.Google Scholar

58 McKenna, Cullen, pp 324–5.

59 McKenna, Cullen, p. 123.

60 FrCullen, James, ‘Total Abstinence League of the Sacred Heart’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th ser., ix, no. 6 (June 1901), pp 502-3.Google Scholar

61 Loc. cit., pp 503–5; McKenna, Cuiten, p. 333.

62 Cullen, ‘Total Abstinence League’, p. 507.

63 Irish Catholic, 31 Jan. 1914.

64 Ibid., 9 Dec. 1905.

65 Ibid., 7 Feb. 1914.

66 Irish Catholic, 9 Dec. 1905.

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.; see also Malcolm, ‘Temperance and Irish nationalism’, pp 112–14.