A brief history of the temperance movement in Britain and Ireland

By Elinor Evans

Published: Monday, 23 January 2023 at 12:00 am

The temperance movement emerged in Britain in the late 1820s and 1830s, at a time of demands for political and economic reform. Drink was everywhere; it was economically important and culturally unavoidable.

The first organised societies against alcohol focused on spirits. However, their reach was limited; while the poor were asked to give up their drink, the rich retained their wine. In the Lancashire town of Preston in 1832, Joseph Livesey – a publisher, trader in cheese, and moral reformer – led a public pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors except on medical grounds. It would be celebrated in temperance history as a clear moral and social challenge to the place of drink in popular culture, and the perceived immorality of drinking places.

Temperance was not just a giving up, a letting go of the dangers posed by drink. It also pledged a communal adoption of a new way of living. Such ideas of self-respect and moral uplift resonated with several Nonconformist groups, and spoke to opportunities for economic improvement too.

In an address to the members of Temperance Societies in Salford in November 1835, one speaker from the Executive Council of the Independent Order of Rechabites said: “We conceive it to be our duty to promote the happiness and comfort of our brethren by recommending and adopting those habits and practices which will most assuredly tend to the promotion of temperance, chastity, and every virtue that adorns the human character.”

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A cartoon depicting Sir Wilfrid Lawson, a 19th-century temperance campaigner. (Image by Getty Images)

The idea of a sober workforce might have been popular with industrialists. Yet this was progress sought – not imposed from above, as it were. Adapting an older model of burial and friendly societies, the Independent Order of Rechabites provided its members with a place to save through subscriptions against future sickness and a code for living in the present. Members had to take the pledge, and could lose their rights for breaking it.

Temperance promised connections between groups and even across classes. But it could also be divisive. The lifestyle change attracted suspicion and criticism, particularly where it was connected to other political ends. Some groups noted with unease the radical arguments of teetotal Chartists.

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Father Theobald Mathew, of the Capuchin religious order, was pictured on many artefacts linked to the temperance movement, such as this pin button, c1909. (Image by Getty Images)

Moral force Irish nationalists linked bodily self-respect to demands for self-rule, drawing on the extraordinary efforts of Father Theobald Mathew, of the Capuchin religious order, to spread temperance in pre-famine Ireland. Though, later in the century, as it provided members with an opportunity to campaign publicly, the British Women’s Temperance Association was split over the extent to which their temperance message should be associated with political demands for suffrage.

 

Temperance in the community

Children were a particular target for temperance action. From its origins in Leeds in 1847, The Band of Hope spread into a network of thousands of branches, often attached to the likes of Sunday schools. Instruction was made entertaining with magic lantern technologies and performances of songs, recitations, and dramas. Legitimate targets as future adults, children were a means by which temperance messages could be spirited into the homes and minds of parents.

Beyond the importance of charismatic leadership, and the collective force of the pledge, temperance also offered members a sober route through life by providing a range of social alternatives to the pub. Members could join brass bands, go on outings, and processions – smartly dressed, parading through the streets behind ornate banners. They could patronise temperance cafes, hotels, and music halls. Dedicated publications generated a sense of purpose and progress.

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By the 1870s, with high numbers of apprehensions for drunkenness nationwide, temperance action seemed more vital than ever. We can trace revived Roman Catholic interest, a growing Church of England Temperance Society, and revivalist missions. The Band of Hope, meanwhile, was producing a generation that had grown up with temperance. Impatient for change, reformers from different backgrounds challenged the licensing laws: there were simply too many pubs – too many temptations – and the drink trade seemed too powerful for moral arguments alone to carry the day.

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