Father Theobald Mathew

God love him, he had a job on his hands trying to convert the Irish to sobriety. Born in 1790, Father Theobald Mathew was an Irish temperance reformer who invented «The Pledge», which involved making a promise to stay off intoxicating drinks forever — he was an all or nothing kind of fella.
Unfortunately for Fr Mathew, his statue is on O’Connell Street. This means that he has a bird’s eye view of the hordes of drunken revellers who roll out of nearby pubs every evening to order fast food and try to find a taxi. Occasionally, they congregate around his base, basically begging for a good smoting.

Father Mathew had at one point (Just before the Irish Famine) 3 Million Irish men and women signed up to the Total Abstinence pledge… and its my firm belief that the reason for our «binge drinking problem» these days is based on the simple principle that —
–whenever anyone gives up alcohol for a period of time (Exams, pregnancy, after a crazy night out etc etc) they usually break the fast with an absolutely almighty visit to the watering hole and get so smashed they’d be less agile than a crippled elephant balancing on the end of a pogo stick … if you multiply that by 3million and for many a lifetime… then you get one massive party that will last a century…
…we are living in that party and we have Father Mathew to thank.

This is one of the many statues that stand on O’Connell street. It looks like a monk exercising traffic calming measures.
I think it’s slightly ironic that the statue is located here of all places. The reason for my surprised amusement is because Father Theobald Mathew started the abstinence from alcohol movement, or The Pledge as it’s more commonly known.
Seems a bit cruel to have him stuck in the middle of a street that spills out the messiest drunks in the city every weekend. It’s like erecting a statue of a nun in Hugh Hefners grounds, surely you being very insincere with your gesture. But alas this is were the man has been placed, just put any alcohol bottles you see near it in the bin out of politeness.