BACK PAGES:The centenary of the birth of Fr Theobald Mathew, founder of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, was marked by temperance campaigners of all denominations with parades and other events in Dublin and Cork and elsewhere. The centrepiece of the Dublin ceremonies was the inauguration of a statue to Fr Mathew in Sackville Street (O'Connell Street) and attracted an impressive turnout, although some found it thirsty work, as this extract from the lengthy reports of the Dublin event indicates.
THERE CAN be little doubt that the proportions of yesterday’s demonstration in favour of temperance in the use of alcoholic drinks – for after all it really comes to that, and amounts to no more – must have taken a great many people by surprise. It is considered by many persons of experience in the matter of street displays, and not prejudiced in favour of the teetotallers, that the gathering yesterday was the biggest that Dublin has seen since the centenary of the birth of O’Connell . . . The gathering certainly possessed prodigious proportions. It was very much more than double the size of the Cork demonstration on last Friday, which was almost unique in the history of the southern capital, and unlike that one, which naturally and properly, and it may be said unavoidably, partook at times of the nature of a religious function, associated as Cork was with the priestly career of the great advocate of temperance – this, unlike it, owed its success to no creed, or class, or occupation.
As to the first, every denomination and every temperance organisation, no matter under what banner, had a place in the ranks. In the second place, although, of course, the demonstration was confined to the working class, the fact of so much help coming to it from other quarters proved that this was only because it has not yet become fashionable for young gentlemen and young ladies to “descend into the streets” for any purpose or cause whatsoever. And with reference to the third point, it may be suggested that a great many of the public houses closed during a part of the day, and allowed their employes out to swell the vast throng of citizens that filled the most important thoroughfares between 10 and 3 or 4 o’clock.
The greater portion of the publicans did not close at all. Some, however, did. In Cork they complied with the request of the Centenary Committee and closed, and the Mayor presiding at the great demonstration in the Grand Parade, himself the proprietor of several licensed houses in the city, took a manful stand in defence of the principles of moderation versus intemperate excess. There were not wanting many yesterday who were of opinion that the members of “the trade”, which it pronounced as if it were a proper noun, written with capitals, missed an opportunity by not following the example of Mayor Horgan and his fellow-traders.Be that as it may, the public houses did – speaking well within the truth – a fairly brisk business during the hours the procession was on its march – its dreary march if you like – from Dawson Street to the Kingsbridge, and back by the northern quays and Capel Street, through Frederick Street, to Sackville Street.
They were not even all teetotallers in the procession! But let this not for a moment be regarded as a serious reflection upon the day’s proceedings. Quite the contrary. The order and decorum, and especially the patience of the vast column of banner-bearers and sash or rosette or League of the Cross wearers was truly impressive, and might justify a good deal of strong talk from a teetotal platform. It has nothing to do with the case that a stray bandsman, who, doubtless, all along regarded himself as a mere functionary, or, if the description is more suitable, mercenary in a temperance crusade, made up after the function was over for his abstinence whilst it was in progress.
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