The Golden Jubilee of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was celebrated at Croke Park in Dublin.
The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (PTAA) is an international organisation for Catholic teetotalers based in Ireland.
The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was founded in the Presbytery of St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin in December 1898 by Father James Cullen SJ. The association would grow to become one of the prominent Catholic movements in the first half of the twentieth century in Ireland.
Over the decades since it was formed, Irish people joined the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association in their thousands. Members pledged three things: to abstain from alcohol for life; to say the Pioneer prayer twice a day; and to bear witness by wearing the pioneer pin at all times.
The popularity of the PTAA remained steady throughout the 1940s and 1950s during which the association celebrated two major milestones, the Golden and Diamond Jubilees, with public rallies held in Croke Park on both occasions.
In this recording, from 1949, reporter P.P. O'Reilly describes the celebrations held for the Golden Jubilee.
On the 26th of June 1949 members from 1400 centre in Ireland, representing nearly every village, town and district in the country and some in England and Scotland gathered in Croke Park after a procession through the city.
Official figures estimated that approximately 93,000 people attended the rally in Croke Park.
Over fifty trains and many buses brought the Pioneers to Dublin from all parts of the country. In addition to the representation from the 1400 PTAA branches in Ireland, branches in England and Scotland were also represented.
Men and women from Buncrana, from Kerry, from Wexford, from the spires of Dungannon, from the parneshial city of Armagh, from the Glens of Antrim and the Falls Road.
The ceremony itself was presided over by the Most Reverand Dr Walsh, Archbishop of Tuam, with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament carried out by Most Rev Dr Dunne, Bishop of Nara. Very Rev J.M. Hayes of Bansha gave an address
It is likely this recording was made for a Radio Éireann news report. The reporter is P.P. O'Reilly.
This recording is from the RTÉ Archives Acetate Disc Collection which has been digitised with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) Archiving Scheme.
