Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

'Ireland Sober, Ireland Free': Drink and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century Ireland byElizabeth MalcolmReview by: Mary E. DalyIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 25, No. 100 (Nov., 1987), pp. 455-456Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008578 .

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Reviews and short notices 455

expectations. The discussion of O'Connell and O'Connellism is admirable. The analysis of how 'Gaelic* Ireland gave place to 'catholic' Ireland is at once sensitive and convincing. The period between the union and the early 1820s usually a hiatus in discussions of this kind receives sustained and illuminating attention. An unusually large amount of sheer information is fed to the reader in the least rebarbative of ways. Indeed, with so many good things provided it seems churlish to ask for even more. However unreasonableness has always been the reviewer's prerogative and an insistence upon perfection the sternest of his duties. Yet even here most of the 'failings' are of either a very venial kind (a certain mechanical quality in the discussion of secret societies) or beyond the author's control (the book's unlovely physical appearance) or caused by the terminal dates adopted by the general editors (bringing things to a conclusion in 1870 necessarily means ending with a whimper rather than with a bang) or concerned with comparatively trivial inconsistencies (the somewhat sporadic use of footnotes). Only in the case of the sixth chapter has anything even approaching a mortal sin been committed, for here an excessively portmanteau approach has rendered that part of the book a kind of repository for all those 'important' things (education, the press, industrialisation, and so forth) which could not easily be 'fitted in' elsewhere.

In every other sense, however, this is a thought-provoking and fluent piece of writing. Though die task is of course impossible, Professor McCartney has, by a species of historical alchemy, succeeded in carrying the enterprise off to an extent and in a manner at once unusual, impressive, and admirable.

K. Theodore Hoppen Department of History, University of Hull

'Ireland sober, Ireland free': drink and temperance in nineteenth-century Ireland. By Elizabeth Malcolm. Pp xiii, 363. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. 1986. mns.

This book, the first comprehensive account of the Irish temperance movement in the nineteenth century, places it firmly in the context of similar movements in Britain and the United States and documents the shifts in the temperance momentum between the catholic and protestant churches. Despite the conventional image of the drunken Irishman. Dr Malcolm shows that temperance was a strong force in nineteenth-century Ireland and that protestant and catholic temperance movements probably affected a larger proportion of the population than in Britain or the United States.

The Irish temperance movement first emerged in Ulster as a by-product of protestant evangelicalism, with clergymen supplying the leadership. The temperance pioneers concentrated their campaign against spirit-drinking and sought to promote moderation; however, they were soon overtaken by the more militant total abstainers. Outside Ulster lay leadership was more common, either from medical men or improving, proselytising landlords. While some catholic support was forthcoming in the early years James Doyle, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, was an early temperance activist it was of limited significance, and whereas protestants saw temperance as part of a package of social reform embracing liberal causes such as anti-slavery, the catholic commitment was more limited. There was no correlation between those catholic bishops who were in favour of temperance and those who supported repeal of the union.

The failure to link temperance, Catholicism and repeal emerges as a major weakness in the Reverend Theobald Mathew's temperance crusade. Fr Mathew's family ties with traditional catholic gentry and his conservative whig politics left him unsympathetic to repeal, while his membership of the small Capuchin order was a further source of

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456 Irish Historical Studies

long-term weakness. The Irish hierarchy distmsted the regular clergy and were particularly resentful of Fr Mathew's independence from diocesan discipline. They viewed his friendship with numerous protestant temperance enthusiasts with suspicion, and, at the height of his crusade, bishops such as MacHale of Tuam and Higgins of Ardagh ran their own independent temperance movements with a strong catholic emphasis. Contrary to Hugh Kearney's depiction of Fr Mathew as 'an apostle of modernization' , he emerges in Dr Malcolm's account as a representative of pre-Famine millennarianism. While he preached a message identical to the message of temperance movements in Britain, that abstaining from drink would ensure material prosperity, for the majority of his followers his appeal lay elsewhere. He was greeted on his tours by masses of hysterical peasants who believed that his temperance medals possessed magical powers. Such frenzy was unlikely to further the cause of repeal. Indeed it would appear that the spread of repeal caused a drift away from temperance, something not altogether surprising given O'Connell's reliance on financial support from the Irish drink trade. Nevertheless, Fr Mathew's achievements were spectacular. In the years 1839-42 the consumption of legal spirits in Ireland fell by half and Malcolm suggests that this was a genuine decline wholly attributable to his efforts.

With the demise of Fr Mathew's campaign the initiative in temperance matters returned to protestant hands. The evangelical revival which swept Ulster in the 1850s brought a long-term increase in teetotalism among the presbyterians. By this time American temperance reformers had concentrated their efforts on political campaigns for prohibition and temperance enthusiasts in post-Famine Ireland combined campaigns for Sunday closing and licensing reform with the establishment of a new wave of temperance societies. However, Malcolm concludes that this campaign resulted in 'disappointed hope, smashed ideals and ultimate frustration' . The weakness of the liberal party, the party most committed to temperance in Ireland, and the strong electoral influence exercised by publicans over the home-rule party were major factors in this defeat, as was the appeal of brewing and distilling to be numbered among Ireland's few successful industries. The electoral influence of the catholic church was not fully harnessed in this cause. While Cardinal Cullen supported Sunday closing he remained suspicious of the protestant-dominated temperance lobby.

Sectarian divisions were also manifest in the voluntary temperance organisations which emerged in post-Famine years. Protestant evengelicals established children's temperance groups such as the Band of Hope which were already flourishing in England, or coffee palaces and temperance hotels such as the famous Russell Hotel in Dublin's St Stephen's Green. The Church of Ireland, however, remained suspicious of teetotalism, tending to favour moderation instead. The catholic hierarchy adopted a more low-key campaign of pastoral letters denouncing drunkenness, voluntary pressure for early closing of pubs on Saturdays, and temperance sodalities and temperance pledges administered at confirmation which ultimately integrated temperance into the broader programme of devotional reform. Perhaps mindful of the political influence of the drink trade, the catholic church tended to campaign for moderation rather than teetotalism. The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, founded by the Jesuit, James Cullen, fitted into this model because Cullen envisaged the Pioneers as an dlite band of enthusiasts operating within a largely hostile environment. By the late nineteenth century both the campaigns for moderation and Cullen's total abstinence movement were fully integrated with catholic devotionalism and Irish nationalism. Cullen campaigned for home prayers, sodalities and other religious devotions; he also supported the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Gaelic League and this accounted for his long-term success. In temperance, as in many other issues, it would seem that religion and nationalism served to divide, even where people of different political and religious opinions shared a common cause.

Mary E. Daly Department of Modem Irish History, University College, Dublin

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