Church leaders in Ireland unite against alcohol

Dublin, 18 March 1915 - The heads of the Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches in Ireland have supported a petition to the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, calling for immediate action against the abuse of alcohol in Ireland.

The petition refers to the speech made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George, who noted that ‘drink is doing more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together’. The petition called for legislation to be introduced closing all drinking establishments on Sundays, and prohibiting the sale of drink after 1pm on Saturday and 6pm on weekdays.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]