W2C-019 Leinster Leader-1.txt
Pioneers celebrate 70 years in Leixlip
By HENRY BAURESS
Alcohol is a gift of God but its abuse is the problem. That was one the themes in a talk to Leixlip Pioneers by Fr. Bernard McGuckian, National President of Pioneer Total Abstinence Association.

He was speaking at the mass to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the pioneer association in Leixlip in 1924.

Referring to the Roaring Twenties in the United States, Fr. McGuckian said prohibition was a foolish attempt to deal with the problem of alcohol. The early pioneers were not puritanical, prohibitionistic or judgemental of others, but their actions were a response to the love of Christ and sacrifice. "They decided to light one little candle rather than curse the dark," he added.

Fr. McGuckian said that the Leixlip group may have been set up in the immediate aftermath of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the founding of the national movement in 1898. It was held at the Royal Dublin Society in June 1924, some months before the start up in Leixlip on 28 November that year.
The movement had started with Fr. Cullen and four women, said Fr. McGuckian. "The first four were women, as Fr. Cullen wanted only women in the movement initially, because he believed men had not suffered enough. But later a group of men pointed out they could be just as worthy of membership," he said.
By 1918, there were 200,000 in the movement and when the Leixlip group was formed a further 50,000 joined.

Drunkeness is a sin said Fr. McGuckian, but drink is not a demon, it is a gift of God. He said preaching, cajoling, police, prisons or psychiatrists could not prevent the abuse of it. "Only God's grace can move a free human will."

Fr. Cullen, who founded the Sacred Heart Messenger used a term: "the gentle violence of total abstinence."

A Pioneer promises to pray every day of their lives for a person with a problem, and the movement is about love and concern for others. Wearing the association's emblem, he said, is a public profession of faith that any human situation can be changed, not a boast about being a non drinker. Fr. Cullen wanted the Pioneers to preach the news that things can change.

Fr. McGuckian told the congregation that he met a woman who lived in the Falls Road, amidst all the troubles 1980's in Belfast. She said that since she had taken the pledge there was a peace inside her home which no trouble could take away.

The worst thing about alcohol abuse is not the man it makes drunk but the children it makes afraid. They never get over it, he continued. A six year old girl in Newry told her teacher she wanted to join the Pioneers. When asked why, she replied it was because of what daddy did to mammy.

The movement was a quintessential Dublin movement, said Fr. McGuckian and Dublin people should be proud of it.

In Africa now, there are 250,000 Pioneers. They are joining in huge numbers there as they did in Ireland sixty years ago, mainly out of love for Christ.

"We would like to have one Pioneer in every home at least. At least one praying that those who take who take a drink moderately will remain moderate."

Fr. McGuckian said we must set out with great hope. "It is a movement primarily of love and compassion, not of indignation and irritation at human folly and stupidity."

Debauchery and drunkenness leads to a coarsening of the heart, he told the attendance, but he reminded them of Matt Talbot's words that the Lord did not ask us to be successful but to be faithful.
Matt Talbot, he said had to give up drink to stay alive but that act led to a lot more. "When I met the Pope a few years ago, he said to me: 'You 're patron is Matt'."
