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’.