Father Mathew's Crusade
Temperance in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and Irish America
University of Massachusetts Press
For centuries, the Irish have been famed, and often derided, for their attachment to alcohol. Yet in the 1830s and 1840s, Ireland became a temperance stronghold. The man almost singlehandedly responsible for this surprising transformation was Father Theobald Mathew (1790–1856), a popular Franciscan friar. Over a ten-year period, five million Irish men, women, and children took the pledge at his hands, while hundreds of public houses were forced to shut their doors or switch to selling coffee and tea.
By the end of the 1840s, however, Mathew's "miracle" was already coming undone. The Great Famine was ravaging Ireland and Mathew's years of nonstop campaigning had left him sick, exhausted, and bankrupt. Undeterred, he traveled to the United States in 1849 to generate support and administer the pledge to as many new immigrants as he could find. Failing health forced him to return to Ireland where he died in 1856, leaving behind a weak and fragmented movement.
In the late nineteenth century, several Irish priests revived Mathew's crusade. In the United States, Irish American bishops supported the Catholic Total Abstinence Union (CTAU) and joined hands with the Women's Christian Temperance Union in their war against liquor. In Ireland, Father James Cullen formed the Pioneers, a total abstinence association for devout Catholics. While the CTAU languished after the United States Congress passed the Prohibition Amendment in 1919, the Pioneers continued to thrive in Ireland into the 1960s. Although the group's membership has declined in recent years, there are still today a large number of Irish teetotallers.
By the end of the 1840s, however, Mathew's "miracle" was already coming undone. The Great Famine was ravaging Ireland and Mathew's years of nonstop campaigning had left him sick, exhausted, and bankrupt. Undeterred, he traveled to the United States in 1849 to generate support and administer the pledge to as many new immigrants as he could find. Failing health forced him to return to Ireland where he died in 1856, leaving behind a weak and fragmented movement.
In the late nineteenth century, several Irish priests revived Mathew's crusade. In the United States, Irish American bishops supported the Catholic Total Abstinence Union (CTAU) and joined hands with the Women's Christian Temperance Union in their war against liquor. In Ireland, Father James Cullen formed the Pioneers, a total abstinence association for devout Catholics. While the CTAU languished after the United States Congress passed the Prohibition Amendment in 1919, the Pioneers continued to thrive in Ireland into the 1960s. Although the group's membership has declined in recent years, there are still today a large number of Irish teetotallers.
Father Mathew's remarkable career has at last found its historian. Quinn's book is first-rate on all counts—research, writing, interest, and significance.'—Philip Gleason, professor emeritus, University of Notre Dame
'Quinn's research and scholarship are very impressive, sound, and up-to-date. The book makes a significant contribution to the field. I would use it in the courses I teach on Modern Irish history and on the Irish in America.'—Kerby A. Miller, author of Emigrants and Exiles:
Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America
'Quinn's work is a fresh and interesting approach that allows the reader to better understand how and why millions of Irishmen and women took the pledge to abstain from drinking alcohol. . . . Quinn's book brings to light an often overshadowed figure in Irish history. He effectively relates temperance to a broader historical context, especially in nineteenth-centure Ireland.'—H-Catholic
'Fresh and interesting approach... allows reader to better understand why millions of Irish... (pledged) to abstain from drinking alcohol.'—H-Net
John F. Quinn is associate professor of history at Salve Regina University.
