James Haughton In 1864, a year after the opening of our Church on St. Stephens Green, the Building Committee published a report which included the names of all those who had subscribed (and amounts subscribed!) towards the building of the Church and the subsequent installation of the organ. The eyes of any Unitarian historian would surely be drawn to the many family names which seem to have been associated for many years with our congregation and its various Presbyterian / Dissenter meeting houses around Dublin City. Names like Armstrong, Bruce, Drummond, Falconer, Falkiner, Hamilton Rowan, Hutton and Kirkpatrick seem to turn up across the centuries and some were still on the membership lists up to relatively recently. Compared to their predecessors, who played significant roles in the English revolution of the 1640s and in the United Irish rebellion of 1798, the Dublin Unitarians of the mid 19th century seemed to have been a very respectable and upright group of people. But although they had moved from a Meeting House to a Church (in itself the source of some dissent) they had by no means lost their radical edge. Among the names listed as subscribers to the building of the Church were several members of the Haughton family including the Treasurer, William Haughton. Another of the Haughton’s, James, was the subject of a brief biography written by Frances Clarke which appeared in a recent edition of History Ireland. The article is headed ‘Son of a Water Drinker‘and ‘Anti-Everythingarian’ and is a wonderful sketch of a fascinating character. Although his parents were lapsed Quakers, Haughton himself was a member of the Society of Friends until, in 1834, he joined the Unitarian congregation which was then meeting at Strand Street. As well as the Unitarian Christian Society, Haughton was an active member of a host of improving and campaigning societies and associations including the Dublin Statistical Society, The Dublin Mechanics Institute, The Vegetarian Society, The British India Society and The Hiberno Peace Society. (The membership lists of some of these societies are well populated with names from our two Dublin congregations) It was mainly as an activist in the Dublin Temperance Society and the Hiberno Anti-Slavery Society that Haughton achieved public prominence. Haughton was convinced that much of the Dublin’s rampant crime, disease and poverty could be attributed to the abuse of alcohol and he promoted the cause of temperance through his many letters to the press which he signed ‘Son of a Water Drinker’. Although one of the most successful grain merchants in Dublin, he refused to deal in malt or barley as they were used to produce alcoholic drink, a clear measure of his level of commitment to his beliefs. Consistent with his belief that the welfare of humanity could be improved by the application of enlightened policies, Haughton was closely involved with the Dublin Mechanics Institute which, like Institutes in other cities, was set up to provide education for the working classes. Through the provision of classrooms, a library, reading room, lecture hall and theatre, the Dublin Mechanics' Institute played a role in early industrial education and provided a significant educational and social outlet for Dublin workers. Eventually, Kevin Street Technical School, set up by Dublin Corporation in 1887, became the main provider of industrial education, but the Institute gained fame as a lecture venue and theatre, becoming the Abbey Theatre in 1904. At one point the Institute suffered from some sectarian divisions which Haughton worked hard to heal. The role of peacemaker was one he had to take in other organisation he belonged to. Haughton also campaigned to have the Peoples Gardens created in the Phoenix Park, for free admission to the Botanic Gardens and for reduced admission charges on Sunday to Dublin Zoo. (There is a Haughton House in Dublin Zoo but I believe this may be named after his son Sam) The 'Son of a Water Drinker' was given other nick names which weren't intended as complimentary. As Clarke writes, 'one time president of the United Kingdom Vegetarian society, he was christened Vegetable Haughton by his detractors, he wrote regularly to British and Irish newspapers on such issues as the exploitation of India, the extension of the electoral franchise, education, sanitary reform, taxation, land reform, animal rights, the opium trade, flogging in the army, repression of crime and capital punishment. Alongside like minded enthusiasts such as Richard Allen and Richard D Webb (who collectively became known as the Anti Everythingarians ) he spoke regularly on these issues at public meetings'. Nowadays Haughton is best remembered for the prominent role he played in the Hiberno Anti Slavery Society. Although information on him on Irish web sites is scant, a search of the world wide web throws up a host of results almost all related to his activity in the anti slavery movement. In 1838 and again in 1840 he represented Ireland at the World Anti Slavery Conventions where he won the admiration of the leading abolitionists. He also published condemnations in the form of four letters to the Irish people. Haughton was an admirer of and corresponded with Daniel O'Connell another great opponent of slavery, and was also a member of O'Connells Repeal Association. After the Young Irelanders split from the Repeal Association he again played the role of peacemaker as he tried hard to bring about a reconciliation between the two groups. His own membership of the the Young Ireland Convention was short lived as he resigned from that organisation when it sent an address of thanks to the slave owning Vice President of the USA, George Miflin Dallas, without including a condemnation of slavery. It was perhaps these energy sapping splits that brought him to write in a letter to a friend 'I hate party work, my efforts are for moral reform, polical reform would follow as a matter of course'. Political or Moral reformer, when James Haughton died in 1873 at the age of 78 he had lived a full life of social action. Did Haughtons Unitarianism inform his social conscience, or did his social conscience bring him to Unitarianism.? In his recent Sunday Service address, David Edelman (see article pp9) gently challenged the Congregation on the absence of Unitarian social action in Ireland. If we decide to take up this challenge we are not short of examples to follow. Rory Delany July 2007 Cover