File 16 - Copy Temperance Reports

168 pp; Copy Manuscript

Photocopies of Temperance Reports held in the State Paper Office (now the National Archives of Ireland). The reports are part of the Official Papers Collection (OP/1840/131/10). Police and magistrates in the southern counties of Ireland submitted detailed reports on the progress of the temperance crusade in their districts at the beginning of 1840 in reply to a circular (12 March 1840) from the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary in Dublin. These replies (the Temperance Reports) have survived in the original handwriting of the police officers and magistrates. The counties covered in the reports include Waterford, Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary, Wexford, Cork, Clare and Galway. The file also includes a copy of the ‘Rules of Saint Mary’s Temperance and Mortality Society established July 28th, 1839, in Limerick’. The photocopies were acquired by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. in March 1982. The file also includes notes (compiled by Fr. Nessan) taken from evidence found in the Temperance Reports particularly in respect of the locations visited by Fr. Mathew and the numbers pledged.