What are your weekend plans bros?

A letter written by then Catholic Cardinal Paul Cullen in March 1870 illustrates the attitude of those backing Sunday closing:

"Almost all the crime we have to deplore in Ireland may be traced to drunkenness; and as long as the doors of the public-house stand open during the leisure of the Sunday, it will be very difficult indeed to root out from among our people that degrading vice." Cullen called for legislation to impose the Sunday ban, for the "spiritual and temporal welfare of our excellent people".

Religious figures were anti-liquor, generally. A number of bishops, in the absence of legislation, told people to refrain from drink on Sundays, with (they said) apparent localised success. The Irish Times wrote of the Bishop of Cashel, upon his death in January 1875 that he had "waged war" against drunkenness – but he was far from the only one. In Bessbrook, Co Armagh, a no-drink-on-Sunday policy had led to there being no need for police – at least, that's according to a member of the Irish Sunday Closing Association, speaking in October 1875.

Up until the 1970s, Irish law prohibited pubs from opening on March 17 as a mark of respect for this religious day. It was feared that leaving the pubs open would be too tempting for some during Lent and would lead to a disrespectful amount of drunkenness on this most solemn day.

Irish !Catholics tried but !Hibernians want their drink.