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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

Maintaining Sobriety And Good Conduct

Article 5 ~ February 2006

Temperance and total abstinence Lodges are among the most admired in the Orange Order.

A fairly high proportion of Lodges fall into this category. Many were formed during periods in our history when the abuse of alcohol had reached very serious proportions in the population.

Today, Northern Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, is faced with extremely serious drink problems.

Binge drinking, as it is known, has reached crisis proportions, and is having a hugely detrimental effect on cities and towns throughout the Kingdom.

A high proportion of the binge drinkers are young women. Some town centres have become battlefields at weekends, and the unsavoury side effects of alcohol abuse is even felt in the accident and emergency sections of hospitals.

Violence resulting from alcohol has reached unacceptable levels. It is taking up a huge amount of police time, and is putting a strain on hospital and health facilities.

The Government and other agencies has been concerned - and rightly so - with smoking, and drug taking - but remains apathetic in its response to the drink crisis.

Instead of taking firm action to control the sale of alcohol, the Government is easing restrictions, allowing more time than ever for drinking.

This is apparently based on the premise that the UK can acquire a continental-style cafe culture.

There is no evidence at all that this will happen, and instead, the problem is threatening to run completely out of control.

Alcohol has never been cheaper, and many experts, including the highly-respected Professor Roger Williams, who treated Ulster footballing legend George Best, believe the price of alcohol should be more realistic.

Northern Ireland has its own alcohol-related problems and the recent turmoil in the Holy Lands area of Belfast underlined the extent of the problem.

This Province once had flourishing temperance movements with huge memberships. That is no longer the case, although such organisations do exist and enjoy a reasonable level of support.

Ironically, the decline in the mass-movement temperance organisations took place in the 1950s, a decade when the sale of alcohol had dropped to record levels.

Today, alcohol is big business, with television geared to boost its sales, and the big drinks firms have the resources to 'sell' the pro-drink message.

Northern Ireland certainly does not need lessening of its existing drink laws, and in fact they should be tightened up.

As far as the Orange Institution is concerned, we must treasure our temperance and total abstinence Lodges and encourage more men, especially impressionable young men, to join them.

These Lodges are held in the highest respect by members of the general public who enjoy Orange parades and believe that the temperance Lodges project a very positive image which reflects greatly to the credit of the Orange Institution.

There has never, in recent times, been a greater need to combat the excesses of drinking, and the Orange Institution must play its part in trying to get the temperance and total abstinence message across, not only to its members, but the population at large.

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