“He also spoke of the horror scenes there used to be when police where arresting a drunken woman, & how his society urged the Commissioner of Police to use a covered motor wagon, with a woman attendant, & he would, and they were to get one – a Ford – from the government, when Ford came over on his peace mission to Europe, & they discovered that this was no time to be doing business with such a man, & the wagon hasn’t materialised yet.”
NLI Call Number: MS, 3582/35
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: 29th October 1918 – 11th September 1919
WEEK 71: 10th – 11th February 1919
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Monday 10th Feb. – Bitterly cold day. T & I went to a F.o.R. meeting at the Bells’ in the evening; it was an essay by Mr Deens on Socialism & Christianity, showing how they are considered incompatible by both [some most] Christians & some Socialists, & each fights & abuses the other, but they are really the same principle & should fulfil each other. It was very good, but there were very few present. I stayed on after it a while with Charlotte & she showed me some dance steps she had learned at the high school, & we were very gay.
Tuesday 11. – T. went to Cork by the 7.15 train, to Nancy’s wedding. Very fine bright frosty day. I went & read the National Being with Annie, & in the evening went to the essay meeting – Drink & the War, by William R. Wigham. He is a
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good lecturer if he wasn’t so anxious to be funny. He told something of how each of the belligerent nations dealt with the drink trouble during the war – Russia seemed to make a great success with prohibition & France didn’t do much except stop absinth, but doesn’t seem to have had much trouble with drink. England had compromised & compromised & made very little headway, and most of the lecture was about Ireland, showing how the temperance society Wigham belongs to keeps approaching the Castle government to have drink stopped or limited a bit more in Ireland, & what a hopeless task they have trying to get anything done. French chats to them pleasantly for a long time, & then says “There are a great many interests involved, & we must go slowly.” He spoke very gustily of the temperance
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methods of the Sinn Féiners in the rising – said most of the leaders were teatotallers, & they ordered that anyone seen drunk on the streets [or looting] was to be shot – I think that was it, though it seems cruel – & he spoke of the mysterious notice ordering all pubs to close, while appeared on the walls then, & no one knew where it came from. He also spoke of the horror scenes there used to be when police where arresting a drunken woman, & how his society urged the Commissioner of Police to use a covered motor wagon, with a woman attendant, & he would, and they were to get one – a Ford – from the government, when Ford came over on his peace mission to Europe, & they discovered that this was no time to be doing business with such a man, & the wagon hasn’t materialised yet. There was a lot of discussion, Deens spoke very well, condemning the system of putting “trustees” over separation
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women who drink all their money, to control the money & dole it out as they think best. He said nobody investigates how much of their income the rich spend on drink, & its
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