The British Women’s Temperance Association (BWTA) archive includes a collection of glass lantern slides including an illustrated image of Father Theobald Mathew (right), an Irish Priest and teetotalist reformer and President of Cork Total Abstinence Society formed in 1838.
Father Mathew is credited with bringing over 2 million people to the temperance cause in Ireland, within just a few short years of joining the movement. This figure increased quickly with Mathew’s efforts, bringing with it a considerable drop in spirit consumption and also criminal convictions.
The women of the BWTA held presentations using these glass lantern slides, as a way of sharing the temperance message. If you had attended one of these events, you might have listened to, and seen this account of the life and work of Father Mathew, and at the end of the evening you may have decided to sign the temperance pledge yourself. This presentation, by an unknown author dates to around 1900….CLICK HERE to read more about ‘The Apostle of Temperance’….