Factsheet – The Fr. Mathew Statue
Designed by Mary Redmond and unveiled in 1893, this statue commemorates Fr. Theobald
Mathew (1790-1856) who was the leader of the temperance movement in Ireland, which
preached the need for abstention from alcohol. Fr. Mathew, known as the “Apostle of
Temperance”, joined the Franciscans in Dublin in 1808, and in 1810 he was received as a
novice in the old Chapel of Church Street (this is a church on the site of the present St. Mary
of the Angels, Church Street, which was built in 1868). After transferring to Cork, he spent
twenty-four years before beginning his campaign for temperance.
In 1838 he presided over the first meeting of the Cork Total Abstinence Society and in less
than six months, 130,000 people in Cork followed his example, and he spent the next few
years travelling around Ireland and enrolling converts to temperance.
Fr. Mathew visited England and Scotland; and, within three months, 600,000 had signed the
pledge. He visited America where, during a stay of two and a half years, he encouraged
more than 500,000 to sign the pledge. In 1890, a marble statue, by Mary Redmond, was
erected in O'Connell Street in Dublin, to commemorate Father Mathew's centenary.