BROADCASTER MÍCHEÁL Ó Muircheartaigh has said the closure of the Pioneer Association would be a “retrograde step”.
Mr Ó Muircheartaigh, a life-long pioneer, made the comments following a letter from the association to its members stating it faces imminent closure unless new funds can be raised.
In the letter, association chief executive Padraig Brady said the 112-year-old temperance body had now reached “crisis point” and needed an “urgent injection of funds”. The organisation, founded in 1898 by a Jesuit priest and characterised by its pioneer pin, said it was projecting a deficit of €100,000 for 2011. At its height the organisation’s membership numbered 360,000, while today it has just over 100,000 members.
Mr Brady said yesterday that with members not charged an annual fee, the association has to survive on dwindling sales of the pioneer pin, which costs €5, sales of the Pioneermagazine, and church gate collections.
“If we didn’t do anything about the situation we would run out of money towards the end of the year,” he said.
Mr Brady said while sales of young pioneer pins numbered up to 20,000 a year, the association’s membership was predominantly older.
Of the association’s letter, Mr Ó Muircheartaigh said: “I didn’t know that they had financial problems or anything like that. I think if members had known that sooner, people would flood them with help.” A member since his Confirmation, he said he thought the association still held an important message for society.
“It offers a choice. It’s not for everybody, or even the majority, but there is still 100,000 [of us] there and as far as I can see there is a vibrant young movement.”
Asked about the impact of the association on his life, Mr Ó Muircheartaigh said: “I think it has been very useful. I’ve never had a desire to be a drinker. I drive over 50,000km a year, I’m on the road a lot and I’ve been breathalysed a lot, but when you see a garda approaching with the kit and all that, you think, I’m safe anyway. It’s very good that way.”
He added: “I think even people that drink will now contribute to keeping it going. I think there will be a very good response.”
It is hoped the association’s appeal will raise the €300,000 needed to avert closure and fund its activities, which include an advocacy service run in conjunction with the Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative, visits to schools, activities for young pioneers and spiritual retreats.
Put to him that the organisation had failed to move with the times, Mr Brady said: “Maybe we haven’t moved with the times as fast as we should have. Now we want to be proactive.” Of Irish society, he said: “We’re scourged by rampant alcoholism at the moment, addiction is getting worse.”
He added: “This letter will hit our members as a surprise as we have never before sought direct help from them. I’ve no doubt that the association will rally around on this.”
FUNDING PLEA CHIEF EXECUTIVE ASKS MEMBERS TO DONATE €10 EACH
THE PIONEER Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart was founded by Jesuit priest Fr James Cullen in 1898.
Concerned by the effects on families of workers’ heavy drinking – with alcohol the greatest drain on earnings – Fr Cullen set up the movement with four female co-founders in Dublin’s Gardiner Street.
His early vision was of an all-female organisation which, “through its prayers and sacrifice in pledging to abstain from alcohol for life, would provide spiritual support for people to abstain from alcohol”. Soon, however, with pressure from men to join, Fr Cullen extended the membership to all.
Members pledged to abstain from alcohol for life, to say the Pioneer prayer twice a day and to wear the Pioneer pin at all times.
The association says its members choose to “go without alcohol, as a gesture of love in return for God’s love and out of concern for those struggling with alcohol”.
By 1905 there were 43,000 members, rising to 100,000 by 1910. By the 1950s as many as one in three Irish adults had joined, with pioneers filling Croke Park to celebrate the body’s diamond jubilee in 1958. Membership is a fraction of what it was at its peak, but still numbers 100,000.
In addition to wearing the distinctive pioneer pin, worn prominently by broadcaster Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte, each member also makes a daily prayer, the “Heroic Offering”.
With falling membership, traditional revenues from pin sales and subscriptions to its Pioneer magazine have dwindled.
Pioneer Association chief executive Padraig Brady says the organisation has been at a financial loss for the past four years. In his letter to members, he writes: “As Pioneers we are known the length and breadth of Ireland for our tradition of giving to others. The time is well overdue for us now to give to ourselves.”
Mr Brady appealed to members to donate at least €10 each to keep the organisation afloat.
– JOANNE HUNT
