Venerable Matt Talbot, whose journey from alcoholism to the heights of holiness has inspired many who struggle with addiction, died one hundred years ago
on June 7, 1925, writes Ray Cleere

 

From his early teens until he was 28 Matt Talbot’s sole purpose in life was alcohol. But from that point forward his sole purpose was God.

Matt Talbot was born on May 2nd, 1856, in the parish of St. Agatha at Alderborough Court, North Strand, in Dublin City. The day was the first Friday in May 1856. It was the day when the people of Dublin at the time gathered and watched the Peace Proclamation parade which celebrated the end of the Crimean War.

Matt was the second eldest of twelve children; two boys, twins Edward and Charles, died in infancy. Three days after he was born Matt was baptised in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral by Father James Mulligan, a young priest who was 29. It is a reflection on the conditions which prevailed in the city at the time that within two months Father Mulligan was dead. He died from a fever which he contracted while he cared for the poor people of the parish.

Matt Talbot came home and became one of the poor children of the city. Life was not easy for the Talbot family, they lived in cramped and squalid conditions with no proper sanitation or running water. The family were always poor because their father, Charles Talbot, drank heavily, and they constantly moved from one tenement to another. Matt’s mother, Elizabeth Bagnall, worked as a charwoman in order to earn some extra money.

In his early years Matt Talbot had little security or stability. He did not know what either meant. He did not start school until he was eleven and like so many children at the time, the main reason why he went to school was that he could be prepared to receive the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

He went to O’Connell’s Primary School, which was opened by and named after Daniel O’Connell, the Catholic emancipator. But Matt did not attend much school as the family was poor because the father was drinking. While his mother worked as a charwoman to earn some extra money, Matt stayed at home and looked after his younger brothers and sisters. His teacher at the time, Brother Ryan, summed up Matt’s time in O’Connell’s when he wrote in the remarks column of the class roll book ‘a mitcher’ or ‘a truant’.

When Matt left school, he could hardly read or write. His first job was with a bottling company called E and J Burke in Bachelors Walk. Bearing in mind that his father, Charles Talbot, had a drink problem it was a most unsuitable job. Matt delivered the bottles of stout and beer to the pubs around Dublin City and like so many of the other boys who worked there at the time, he decided to experiment and began drinking. When he was fourteen, he was drinking regularly.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own