Final report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the operation and administration of the laws relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Liquor Licensing Laws
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the operation and administration of the laws relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    236/406 (page 218)
    61,501, drink question in Cork, certain public-houses are known as women's houses, and on Saturday nights and Monday mornings they are crowded. On the other hand, Mr. J. O'Brien, Secretary to the United Trados Council contradicts these statements, and declares that the women are not the terrible 6<5 ?07 drunkards they are said to be, and that the working-classes of Cork are as sober a body as you can get in Ireland. In Belfast, Mr. Morell, Chief District Inspector, believes that drunkenness is slightly decreasing. Though the statistical decrease is partly clue to the altered practice of the 5- 13^ police in not arresting incases of slight drunkenness, something, and probably much, is 57,143. ^° be set down to the substitution of beer and porter for whisky, besides the work of religious and moral agencies, and a decrease in public-houses. 57,146. Female intemperance, however, is increasing. This he attributes largely to the spirit- groceries, where the women get credit, and where treats in liquor are given on the purchase of groceries. 57,148. Child drinking is happily rare in Belfast, but juveniles from 16 to 20 seem to be increasingly given to intemperate habits. The city of Londonderry affords interesting evidence on several points. An Leatham illustration of the habits of the people in country districts is presented by the fact 67,736.' that women mostly constitute the class of habitual drunkards in the city, while men 57,795. take the lead in the country. Women never attend the fairs and markets in the country districts—which are resorted to by the men—while the pernicious elements generated in the town population drive women to drink, and women, as we have already seen, when once they take to drink easily fall into habitual dissipation. But, on the whole, in Londonderry city and county, drunkenness is on the decrease, and the reasons given for the decrease appear to bo eminently likely to conduce to the good results which are stated to be owing to a number of co-operating causes, such as Sunday closing, the Licensing Acts, 1872 and 1874, temperance work, spread of education, and increase of out-door games. The Rev. T. F. Furlong of Waterforc] says that drunkenness is decreasing on the GO 650 whole, and Mr. Considine, Resident Magistrate at Kilkenny, says there is practically no 60112 change. It' anything there is a decrease, but a vast amount of drunkenness still exists. ii.—Connexion between Drink and Crime. 57,158. 58,065. 61,503. 61,516, 62,351. 61,426. 61,825. Considine, 61,111. Furlong, .60,599, &c, &c. Nowhere is the connexion between drink and crime more strikingly displayed than in Ireland. Mr. Morell says that in Belfast 75 or 80 per cent, of crime is due directly or indirectly to drink. The N.S.P.C.C. shows by its returns for Belfast that 84'2 per cent, of prosecutions have an element of drink in the case. In Cork, Mr. Gambell says, 17 per cent, of serious crimes classed as outrages, and 60 or 70 per cent, of assaults, &c. are connected with or traceable to drink, besides 105 out of 115 convicted cases of cruelty to children in 3 years. The Rev. P. O'Leary goes even further. He is President of the S.P.C.C. in Cork. Last year, out of 175 cases under supervision, only one was not due to gross habitual intemperance. He adds that the governor and deputy-governor of the Cork Gaol agreed that 90 per cent, of the prisoners owed their misfortunes to drink. Judge Orr says nearly all the crime he has to deal with is created directly or indirectly by the public-house. Judge Curran says that serving drink to drunken or half-drunken persons is a common practice. If that were got rid of you would get rid of nine-tenths of the crime in Ireland. Mr. Bnnis, J.P., of Wexford, and a Visitor of Wexford Prison, says, that if it were not for the drink the gaols would be practically empty; 90 per cent, of the prisoners, as well as about two-thirds of the workhouse inmates, owe their position to it. Other witnesses speak to the same effect, and the facts are incontestable.