25/03/2024
Catch-my-Pal was very much in favour of prohibition, in those places where such a thing was a legal possibility.
They campaigned for it very strongly in Northern Ireland until the Attorney General gave the Government advice that the Government of Ireland Act (1920) made it impossible to enact without paying compensation.
The NI Government could not possibly afford this, even if it wanted to, which it didn't.
They then switched their demands to 'local option' on the model actually enacted in Scotland where citizens could vote to withdraw liquor licences in their local area. This had been a very successful tactic in Scotland, where it persisted into the 1970s, but was never brought to Ulster.
