One thing there will not be in the crowd at Croke Park tomorrow is drunk and disorderly behaviour. The crowd will number upwards of 35,000. Its members will have come from across the world. They will be in jubilant mood, but not a drop of champagne will be spilt - or imbibed. Father Cullen would be proud.
The centenary of the movement he founded, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, will be marked tomorrow with a parade and open-air Mass at the GAA headquarters.
"We have 500 buses coming up to Dublin," Father Micheal Mac Greil, chairman of today's Pioneers Association, told The Irish Times. "There will be a parade from O'Connell Street with 17,000 people and 24 bands from all over the country."
The chief celebrant at tomorrow's Trinity Sunday Mass will be the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, and the crowd will also be addressed by the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Francis Cardinal Arinze from Nigeria. The crowd will not match the 100,000 that massed for the movement's diamond jubilee in 1959, or even the 60,000 which took part in its 75th anniversary pilgrimage to Knock in 1974. But in an era when figures of devotion are more likely to be football players or their popstar wives, the expected audience of 40,000 for the Pioneers' Croke Park gig must be considered a good crowd.
Father James Cullen founded the Pioneers Association in St Francis Xavier Church in Gardiner Street, Dublin, on December 28th, 1898. Only four local women joined the crusade initially but within seven years, it had come to the attention of Pope Pius X, who signed a Brief enriching it with Indulgences in 1905. In 1918 it had 260,000 members worldwide, and by the time of Father Cullen's death in 1921, it was an institution in Irish life.
It became automatic for children making their Confirmation to "take the pledge" to abstain from alcohol and wear the Pioneer pin. The second temperance movement in 19th century Ireland - after the crusade of Father Theobald Mathew in the 1830s - it differed in that it had the blessing of the institutional church.
Though founded in part to combat the scourge of alcohol abuse, particularly among the poor, its philosophy was and remains very much a spiritual one. The Pioneer sacrifices something good in order to strengthen the spirit, explains Father Mac Greil. The movement is not meant to be used as a therapy or counselling for the alcoholic.
Where the movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries suited a society casting itself as athletic, Catholic, sober and free, its role today has waned. Particularly since the 1960s, remaining relevant has meant a move away from the purely spiritual. It will now even countenance the "moderate" use of alcohol as "lawful".
Father Mac Greil sees the movement "keeping an eye on the abuse of alcohol by the system" and voicing concerns about alcohol abuse in the way the Irish Catholic bishops, in their pastoral letter, did on Thursday. He insists this semi-lobbying role is important, if even just to maintain an awareness of the havoc alcohol continues to wreak.
He points to a society where in 1996 (the latest available figures) 5,435 people were admitted to psychiatric hospitals for alcohol disorders; where 27 per cent of males and 21 per cent of females consume more than the recommended alcohol intake and where 22 per cent of adults admit to driving "over the limit".
Though the age profile of its membership here is middle-aged and older, Father Mac Greil believes that in an Ireland where 29 per cent of children admit to drinking once a month, maintaining a presence among young people is valuable.
For Greg Mulvey (18), a pupil at Dublin's Synge Street school, joining the Young Pioneers when he was in second year "made sense". He did not like the taste of alcohol anyway and his friends do not give him a hard time.
"Why should they? If they go to the pub I go too. I just have a Coke."
The greatest growth area, however, remains the developing world. Tomorrow will be a day for celebration for Pioneers from across all five continents.
They'll be praying for a dry day.
Tickets for the Mass are still available at £5. Information from the Pioneers at (01) 874 9464.
