The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (PTAA) is an international organisation for Catholic teetotalers that is based in Ireland.
The PTAA was founded in 1898 by James Cullen, in response to widespread alcoholism among Irish Catholics as the earlier temperance movement of Father Mathew was fading from memory.
In 1923, Eoin O'Duffy as Commissioner of the Garda Síochána (Civic Guard) encouraged members to join the PTAA, and allowed Gardaí to wear the Pioneer pin on their uniforms, in exemption to a general ban on symbols and adornments.
[3] In 1956, a Commission of Enquiry into the licensing laws in the Republic of Ireland was appointed by the Minister for Justice, James Everett; the PTAA nominated one of the 22 members, John K.
[4] Clear assented to the majority report of the Commission, which favoured easing the (widely disregarded) restrictions on opening hours of public houses introduced in 1925, although the Catholic hierarchy subsequently opposed the resulting Act.