New Home Rule parliament urged to reject the ‘evil of drink’
‘Ireland is suffering from a criminal weakness, a source of disgrace and degradation, a danger that blocked the way to her future prosperity,’ Fr. J.A. Cullen, SJ, told a packed meeting in Dublin today.
The problem, Fr. Cullen said was ‘indulgence in strong drink. It was that evil which lay at the root of their national misery. It had like a hellish monster dogged their people through the world.’
He continued: ‘If half the money spent profitlessly on drink in Ireland during the year was placed at the disposal of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, what an easy task would his be in financing his first Home Rule budget.’
Fr. Cullen said that almost one-third of the priests of Ireland were pioneers, that the leading ecclesiastical colleges were filled with total abstaining students and that the Pioneer Movement now had in its ranks some 275,000.
He asked that the Irish Volunteers and the new Home Rule Parliament take the lead in opening people’s eyes to the magnitude of the drink evil in the country and the calamities caused by it.
Ultimately, Fr. Cullen called on Irish people to be educated as to the dangers of alcohol and its destructiveness.
The calls were made at the National Catholic Total Abstinence Congress in the Mansion House today. The congress was attended by more than 2,000 delegates from the temperance societies of Ireland’s Catholic dioceses. The day began with religious ceremonies in the cathedral on Marlborough Street, before proceedings moved to the Mansion House for the afternoon.
