Derry Pioneers commended for their witness

Pioneers were commended for the ministry and witness they give in these times of “enormous abuse of alcohol”, when Bishop Donal McKeown celebrated Mass for Derry members of the Total Abstinence Association in the Immaculate Conception church, Strabane, writes Mary O’Donnell

Saying that there was a lot of pressure on young people to drink, Bishop McKeown asked: “Where do we bring our young people who do not want to get drunk? How do we prevent so many young people from falling into the downward spiral of drink?”

He noted that Fr James Cullen, the association’s founder, had been driven by a passion for the welfare of people, and urged the Pioneers “not to condemn people, but to try to think of another way of dealing with the scourge of alcohol abuse in Ireland”.