Editing Father Mathew (section)

==Total Abstinence Society==
[[File:Fr Matthew.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Father Mathew monument in St. Patrick's Street, Cork]]
The movement with which his name is associated began on 10 April 1838 with the establishment of the "[[Knights of Father Mathew]]", which in less than nine months enrolled no fewer than 150,000 names. Over time this became the Catholic Total Abstinence Society. It rapidly spread to [[Limerick]] and elsewhere, and some idea of its popularity may be formed from the fact that at [[Nenagh]] 20,000 persons are said to have taken the pledge in one day, 100,000 at [[Galway]] in two days, and 70,000 in Dublin in five days. At its height, just before the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] of 1845–49, his movement enrolled some 3 million people, or more than half of the adult population of Ireland. In 1844, he visited [[Liverpool]], [[Manchester]] and [[London]] with almost equal success.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 

While Father Mathew founded the temperance movement in Ireland, it was part of a wider effort to improve the life chances of poor labourers. [[Teetotalism]] was first organised by the Preston Temperance Society, founded in 1833, and the organisations that followed had a huge worldwide impact in the 1800s.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013zl8 ''The Temperance Movement'', In Our Time, BBC 3 February 2022</ref> 

A biography, written shortly after his death, credits Mathew's work with a reduction in Irish crime figures of the era:<blockquote>The number of homicides, which was 247 in 1838, was only 105 in 1841.  There were 91 cases of 'firing at the person' reported in 1837, and but 66 in 1841. The 'assaults on police' were 91 in 1837, and but 58 in 1841. Incendiary fires, which were as many as 459 in 1838, were 390 in 1841. Robberies, thus specially reported, diminished from 725 in 1837, to 257 in 1841. The decrease in cases of 'robbery of arms' was most significant; from being 246 in 1837, they were but 111 in 1841. The offence of 'appearing in arms' showed a favourable diminution, falling from 110 in 1837, to 66 in 1841. The effect of sobriety on 'faction fights' was equally remarkable. There were 20 of such cases in 1839, and 8 in 1841. The dangerous offence of 'rescuing prisoners', which was represented by 34 in 1837, had no return in 1841!<br/> The number committed to jail fell from 12,049 in 1839 to 9,875 by 1845. Sentences of death fell from 66 in 1839 to 14 in 1846, and transportations fell from 916 to 504 over the same period.{{sfn|Maguire|1863|pp=200–201}}</blockquote>