portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its
most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life.
The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not
here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few
manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the
subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to
the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and
provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities
in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department
has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns,
comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which
we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly
necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation
to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said
elsewhere,[48] the interdependence of town and country, and the
establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and
education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem,
as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to
deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it
on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us
too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, content
myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and
pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in
respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary
industries.
In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty
well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry,
and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of
the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all
easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a
much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial
knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.[49]
This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the
soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities
of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of
co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general
educational systems of the country--a difficulty which the other
educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove.
When, on the other hand, education--again, I believe, the chief agency
for the purpose--is considered as a means for the creation of new
industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We
have no longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop
going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our
experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close
touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to
develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving
economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But
unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which
their children are being educated to take their place have an assured
prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an
inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an
immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the
country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an
industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would
also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus
education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its
examinations and result fees--all leading to the multiplication of
clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts
and energies of the people towards productive occupations.
The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving
out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the
same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing
centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application
of science to the cultivation of the soil and the improvement of live
stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming;
with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has
been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic
economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side
of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed
towards the development of subsidiary rural industries.
We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a
system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The
system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties
maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many
more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination
to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the
national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture.
Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified
authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical
directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a
country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but
where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward
condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the
farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a
community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher
education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural
pursuits. A system of agricultural and domestic education suited to the
wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the
new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country,
and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race
meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be
counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest
homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The
unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which
will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of
the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest,
new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character.
We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any
system--that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in
two directions--first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary
scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a
lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in
the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been
desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive
importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional
importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable,
but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for
it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising students
with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a
large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic
conditions of the people among whom they are to work.
The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly
stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the
teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching
profession could not be relegated again to the _status pupillaris_.
There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the
difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the
sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they
willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of
practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five
hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves,
have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at
several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed
themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual
instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and
modelling.
For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of
science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of
Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought
under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be
seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men
who have received a three years' course of training under the new
programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training
of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors
and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed.
In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully
considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate
as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied
Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing
systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until
the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in
Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment,
and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or
formulating a definite programme for its execution.[50] The main object
was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be
concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its
principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the
subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless
provision has been made in the general education of the country for
instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised
or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence
agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being
laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself
of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the
secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of
technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to
follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become
a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being
of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as
well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can
learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical
by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of
agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in
contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the
advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and
at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application
of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary
period of Itinerant Instruction.
The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was
probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of
agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take
the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal
qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them
into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured
capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural
teachers the Albert Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the
Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new
programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter
schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training
of our agricultural teachers.
Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers
on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers
from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been
brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time.
Already half the County Committees have been provided with County
instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and
allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as
more teachers have been trained.
The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one
obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct
business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental
plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his
district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation
in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education,
they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts
a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he
necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the
young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind
of instruction in the schools of the country which will prepare their
children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture
than they themselves can ever hope to do.
This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has
already been explained, was handed over the administration of the
Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The
Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and
drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The
Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the
Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,[51] adopted this
programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the
Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new
"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of
this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to
the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the
innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results.
I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of
'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to
town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great
importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded
that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial
efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a saving in the
worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase
in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course,
immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can
be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only
increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of
wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial
struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for
improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by
increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of
a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important,
but vital.
The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative
and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher
difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their
parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training
than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses
in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country,
nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of
these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet
only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present
possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work,
cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me
that the demand in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of
instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a
class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with
knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned
how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read
of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency
should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly
repressed without endangering the main objects of the class.
Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and
kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the
School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have
been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of
teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has
alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging
improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one
hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under
County Committees.
I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial
centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek,
in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and
its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in
Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific
method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition
precedent to sound specialised teaching of agriculture as well as other
forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in
character--for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value
chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past--to teach not
only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to
promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to
the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in
manual work of various kinds--woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and
building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking
and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been
numerously and steadily attended.
I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give
way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The
simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ
the energy now running to waste in our rural districts--energy which
cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised
industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable,
though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the
family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause
them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not
only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the
elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure,
to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland.
I think the reader will now understand the general character of the
problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its
solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to
commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid,
it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not
immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive
ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at
convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have
had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the
Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions,
magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young
men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen.
It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen
for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the
Corinthian façade and the marble columns of the _aula maxima_ which
aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational
structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the
history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need
for these great institutions was established, he would have a little
more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more
patience with its Fabian policy.
I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has
any ground of complaint against the country for the spirit in which it
has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into
account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our
policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little
over £200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During
the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking
out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution
of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and
country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body
and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other
preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be
applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its
income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were
effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What
more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was
backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not
in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it
has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a
fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional
aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was
discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was
dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the
purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be
powerless, in fact would have to resign. Thoughtless criticism has now
and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department,
but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the
Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service
rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and
Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure
educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and
local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them.
Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with
us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need
of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short
time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of
nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual
instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the
movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools
attended by thirty-six thousand pupils.
Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the
officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and
reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local
administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and
supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place
to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for
the industry of the district. County Clare is not generally considered
the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant
from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost
of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County
Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to
the technical education of the peasantry.
Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and
sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which
the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and
partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most
obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to
the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision
and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best
experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of
live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The
Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable
assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years
administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and
cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its
efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to
improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in
the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the
region of private enterprise.
It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of
having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on
problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the
economic standing of the country--a trade which now reaches in horned
cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million
animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging
from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that
controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged,
with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions--the
question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity
to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of
the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied
by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a
considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live
stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the
experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement
schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for
inspection have been rejected. Many a _cause celèbre_ has not
unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and
there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament
should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has
cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional
soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best
authorities in the country are agreed that since the Department has
been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence
in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our
flocks and herds.
Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There
he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety
of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the
Department's officers or with its _Journal_ and leaflets, the
circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics
and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local
committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the
discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of
agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few
of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the
new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of
efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish
anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes
which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility.
A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every
progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle
for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture
intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely
diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good.
Probably the most useful of our crop improvement schemes have been
those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures,
the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in
many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been
demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the
industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and
thought has been applied and much information disseminated and
illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been
aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many
negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department
in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been
learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small
industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which
disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among
the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young
stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is
well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more
practical work of the Department.
The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries
can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which
may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter,
of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The
issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear,
contributing to the cost of fishery slips and piers, circulating
telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of
the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent
illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the
valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications
suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those
which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as
falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish
oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the
distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is
hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish
oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it
is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative
value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds.
On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the
survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact
knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of
their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations
by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is
necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas
are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery,
with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with
the movements of the fish, and so of predicting the probable success of
a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the
Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise
with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme
of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the
Department are the same. While these various practical projects have
been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by
sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied
by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was
applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of
itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important
work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural
instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the
Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to
give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the
success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural
development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first
three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified
Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly
interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at
home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With
the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will
conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early
years.
The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in
Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the
main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of
what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might
achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the
near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the
way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a
large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported
with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries
and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in
our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the
indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except
perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department.
But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a
series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in
our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were
to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment,
demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods,
illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry
management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while
in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables,
the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive forestry
exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I
may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in
whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment.
We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts,
whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They
were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very
eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by
Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all
cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that
they had the technical training which it was the desire of the
Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the
Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and
cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning
the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the
generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of
farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees,
and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object
lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion
of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back
before the Exhibition closed--an achievement largely due to the
assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the
clergy throughout the country.
This experiment, both in its conception and in its results, was perhaps
unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood
aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing
show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that
this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It
helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand
for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately
to supply.
An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part
in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked
at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush
through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr.
Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have
visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the
Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.'
With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which
seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as
suddenly as he came.
* * * * *
Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through
the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced
together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing
prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of
millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British Empire and the
United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have
made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast
importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the
actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics
at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully
reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and
which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation
of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking
peoples--more especially where these peoples govern races which speak
other tongues and see through other eyes--a clear and striking
exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small
island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the
sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick
to the old home--such a book would possess a deep human interest, and
would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the
present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I
have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question
upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life.
Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any
exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of
which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their
practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators and
organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are
proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their
efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation
with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of
hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the
potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As
I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had
received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury
gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to
which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if
any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will
consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has
been overcome.
Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually
accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first
launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps
more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the
inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action.
Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of
government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the
resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without
transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the
business of the people. In its constitution this department was so
linked with the representative institutions of the country that the
people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and
were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic
thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the
administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be
rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that
a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to
be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish
people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining
reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves.
That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its
initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond
the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above
and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress--and much
has been accomplished in this way of recent years--there must have been
new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be
found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress
lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be
trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been
done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that
the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with
a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the
country.'[52] But after all, while these concessions to Irish
sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to
national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us
Irishmen to realise--and the chief value of all the work I have
described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise--the
responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a
prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we
love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the
same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought
elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury
was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for
the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities
which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great
work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances.
Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in
Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen
realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much
of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and
we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish
prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human
character.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Pages 38, 39.
[49] It must be borne in mind that the Department is not officially
concerned with the question of the economic distribution of land
referred to on pp. 46-49.
[50] For a full description of the Department's scheme of agricultural
education I may refer to a _Memorandum on Agricultural Education in
Ireland,_ written by the author and published by the Department, July,
1901.
[51] See _ante_, pp. 236-238.
[52] Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law Society,
November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170.
INDEX
A.E. (George W. Russell) 200
Agitation as a policy, 82, 83
Agricultural Board, 228, 234, _seq_. 269
Agriculture:--
Agricultural Holdings:--
Improvement of, 46 _seq_.
Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 _seq_.
Agricultural Organisation:
Denmark, 131
Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, 211
England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, 242
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title)
Societies 44, 45
Co-operation (see that title).
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title)
Depression in, 179
Education in relation to, 126, 264 _seq_. 269
Exodus of Rural Population, 39
State-Aid, 45, 211
Tillage, decrease of, 42
Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238
Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271
Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, 210
America, Irish in: 72
Causes of their success and failure, 55 _seq_.
Irish in American politics, 70 _seq_.
Loss of religion in, 111
Anderson, R.A.:--
Co-operative movement, 184, 190
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 200
Andrews, Mr. Thomas:--
Recess Committee, 219
Anti-English Sentiment:--
Irish in America and, 72
Nature and cause, 13
Anti-Treating League, 114
Arnott, Sir John:--
Recess Committee, 218
Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, 108
Association, economic, value of, 167
Associative qualities of the Irish, 166
Bacon Curing:--
Denmark, 131, 194
Bagot, Canon:--
Creamery movement, 189
Balfour, Arthur:--168
Irish policy, 243, 244
Balfour, Gerald:--243, 256
Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 225, 233
Local Government Act, 224, 238, 240
Policy of explained, 225
Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, 224
Banks, agricultural credit, 195 _seq._
Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, 282
Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, 67
Berkeley, Bishop:--
Irish priests, 141
On "Mending our state," 6
"Parties" and "politics," 63
Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. 22
Board of National Education, 126
Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq_. 257
Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, 242
Boer war and the Irish attitude, 9
Bogs, utilisation of, 249
Boycotting, 87
Bright, John:--
Peasant proprietorship, 25
Brooke, Stopford, 92
Buckle, personal factor in history, 27
Bulwer Lytton, 34
Burke, 137
Butt, Isaac, 78
Butter, Danish, 131
Cadogan, Lord, 224
Catholic Association, 99
Catholic Emancipation Act, 104, 125, 132
Catholic University (see University Question).
Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, 161 _seq_.
Character:--
Associative qualities of the Irish, 166
Education and character, 144
Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, 148, 155
Industrial character, 18
Irish inefficiency a problem of character, 32
Irish question a problem of character, 32, 59, 164
Lack of initiative in Irish character, 163
Moral timidity of Irish character, 64, 65, 80, 81
Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, 291
Roman Catholicism and Irish character, 101-105, 110
Chesterfield, Lord:--
Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, 144
Christian Brothers' Schools, 131
Christian Socialists, 184
Church-building in Ireland,. 107
Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, 25
Clan-System in Ireland, 75
Clergy, Roman Catholic:--
Action and attitude towards questions of the day 105
Authority, 96, 105 _seq_.
Moral influence, 115, 116
Political influence, 117
Temperance reform, 112, 114
College of Science and Department of Agriculture, 229
Colonies, history of the Irish in, 72 _seq_.
Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, 17 _seq_.
Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., 57
Congested Districts Board:--
Agricultural banks, loans to 197
Department of Agriculture and, 245
Land Act (1903) and, 245
Success of, 243, 244
Convents and Monasteries, increase of, 108
Co-operative Movement:--
Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq_.
Agricultural depression, cause of, 179
Altruism, appeal to, 210
Anderson, R.A., 184, 190, 200
Associative qualities of Irish, 166, 178, 186
Beginnings, 178
Combination, necessity of, 181
Co-operative Union, Manchester, 184
Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, 184
Creameries, 187 _seq_.
Denmark, 131, 194
Educating adults, 177
English co-operation, 166, 184
Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 218
Gaelic Revival and, 149 _seq_.
Gray, Mr. T.C., 184
Holyoake, Mr., 184
Hughes, Mr. Tom, 184
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title).
_Irish Homestead_, 190, 202
Ludlow, Mr., 184
Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, 189
Middlemen, 180
Monteagle, Lord, 184
Moral effects, 207, 208
Neale, Mr. Vansittart, 184
Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, 44 _seq_.
Production and distribution problems, 179, 180
Roman Catholic clergy and, 119
State-aid side, 45, 165
Success, causes of 210, 211
Vandeleur estate community, 184
Village libraries, 199
Wolff, Mr. Henry W., 199
Yerburgh, Mr., 199
Cork:--
Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, 119, 285 _seq_.
Craig, Mr. E.T.--
Co-operative Movement 184
Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, 187 _seq_.
Crop improvement schemes of the Department, 282
Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq_. 257
Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, 187 _seq_.
Dane, Mr.:--
Recess Committee, 218
Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, 242
Davis, Thomas:--137
Political Methods, 77, 83
Denmark:--
Co-operation in, 131, 194
High Schools, 131
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- 60
Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238
Agricultural Board, 228, 234 _seq._ 257
Agricultural education, 236, 237, 264 _seq._ 269, 272
Agricultural Organisation, 241
Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271
Balfour, Gerald, 225, 233
Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq._ 257
College of Science and, 229
Congested Districts Board and Department, 245
Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272
Constitution, etc., 228
Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, 241
Cork Exhibition exhibit, 119, 285 _seq._
Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq._ 257
Crop improvement schemes 282
Domestic economy teaching, 272
Early days' experiences, 217 _seq._
Educational policy, 236, 237, 272, 274
Educational work, 262
Endowment, etc., 231
Home Industries, 275
Industrial education and industrial life, 130
Intermediate Education Board and, 235, 237
Itinerant instruction, 126, 270
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, 203
Live Stock Schemes, 279
Local Committees, 261
Local Government Act and work of Department, 239
Metropolitan School of Art 230
Munster Institute, Cork, and, 230, 274
Parliamentary representation, 220, 228
Powers, 229 _seq._
Provincial Committees, 234
Purposes, 228
Recess Committee's Recommendations, 220
Royal Dublin Society and, 279
Rural life improvement, 159
Sea Fisheries, 282
Staff, 228
Teachers, 267
Technical instruction, 130, 228, 234, _seq._, 257, 263, 267, 279
Work already accomplished, 278 _seq._
Desmolins, M.:--
English love of home, 53
Devon Commission, tenants'
improvements, 22
Dineen, Rev. P.S.:--
Editor O'Rahilly's poems, 76
Dixon, Sir Daniel:--
Recess Committee, 218
Domestic economy teaching, 272
Drink Evil:--
Anti-Treating League, 114
Causes, 112
Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, 112, 114
Dudley, Lord, 170, 290
Dufferin, Lord:--
Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, 20
Duffy, Sir C.G. 77
Dunraven Conference, 8, 10, 207
Economic system in England, individualism of, 166
Economic thought:--
Influence of Roman Catholicism, 101 _seq_.
Lack of in Ireland, 133 _seq_.
Education:--
Agricultural instruction, 126 264 _seq_. 269
Board of National Education, 126
Christian Brothers, 131
Commissioners of National Education, 235
Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272
Continental methods, 129
Defects of present system, 128
Denmark High Schools, 131
Department of Agriculture's policy and work, 236, 237, 262, 272, 274
Economic, 130, 133
Education Bill, 99
English education in Ireland, 122
Influence of on national life, 59
Industrial, 130, 264
Intermediate Education system, 128, 235, 237
Irish education schemes, 123 _seq_.
Itinerant instruction, 126, 270
Keenan, Sir Patrick, 126
Kildare Street Society, 123
Literary Education, 131
Lord Chesterfield on Education 144
Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, 128, 129
Maynooth, influence of, 134-136, 138, 139
Monastic and Conventual institutions, 108
National factor in national education, 152, 153
Practical, 129 _seq_.
Reports of Commissions, 127
Roman Catholics, higher education, 97, 132, 133
Royal University, 128
Technical instruction, 228, 231 _seq_., 257, 263
Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq_.
University:--
Place of the University in education, 133
Royal Commission on University Education, 128
Wyse's Scheme, 125
Education Bill, 99
Emigration, causes of, etc., 40, 116
England:--
Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, 13, 72
Co-operation in, 166, 184, 192, 206, 242
Economic system, individualism of, 166
Misunderstanding of Irish question, 7 _seq_.
Ewart, Sir William:--
Recess Committee, 218
Experimental Plots of the Department, 281
Ferguson, Sir Samuel:--
National sentiment, 154
Field, Mr. William, 217
Finlay, Father Thomas:-- 119, 208
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 192
Recess Committee 218
Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, 282 _seq_
Flax improvement Schemes, 282
_Fortnightly Review_:--
Harold Frederic on Irish Question, 162
France, _syndicats agricoles_, 242
Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, 78
Frederic, Harold:--
Views on Irish question, 161 _seq_.
Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, 19
Gaelic Revival:-- 148 _seq_.
Appeal to the individual 155
Co-operative movement and, 149 _seq_.
Gaelic League, aims and objects, 150
Hyde, Douglas, 151
Irish language as a commercial medium, 158
National factor in education, importance of, 153
Politics and the Gaelic revival, 156, 187
Rural life, rehabilitation, 159
Gill, Mr. T.P.:--
Recess Committee, 219
Gladstone:-- 85
Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, 67
Home Rule, attitude towards, 3, 66, 67
Tenants' improvements, 22
Glasnevin, Albert Institute, 230, 271
Grattan, 137
Gray, Mr. J.C.:--
Co-operative movement, 181
Grazing, increase of, 42
Grundtvig, Bishop, 131
Hanbury, Mr.:-- 251
Agricultural Societies, necessity of, 242
Suppression of Swine Fever, 252
Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. 200
Harrington, Mr. T.C.:--
Recess Committee 218
Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, 118
Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, 119
Historical Grievances, 14, 17, 59, 104, _seq_. 120, 147
Holdings, small, problem of, 46
Holyoake, Mr.:--
Co-operative Movement, 184
Domestic Economy Teaching, 272
Home: Improvement of, 159
Irish Conception of, 53
Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of 57, 58
Home Industries, 192, 275
Home Rule:--Bill 1886, 61
Gladstone's attitude to the question 3
Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining 84
Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, 4
Ulster and Home Rule, 66, 86. _seq_.
Unionist attitude towards, 35
Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, 184
Hyde, Douglas, 151
Individualism of English economic system, 166
Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, 18
Industrial leadership, and political leadership, 212
Industry:--
Commercial Restrictions, 16-20
Education and Industrial Life, 130
Free Trade, effect of, 19
Gaelic League and, 135
Home Rule and, 87
Peasant Industries 52
Protestantism and Industry 100
Roman Catholicism and Industry. 100, 103 _seq_.
State-Aid 45
Initiative, lack of in Irish character, 163
Intermediate Education 128, 235, 237
Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- 149
Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq._
Agricultural Organisation:--
Denmark, 131
Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, 241
England, Mr. Hanbury's view, 242
Onslow, Lord, opinion, 242
Welsh Co. Councils, and, 242
Anderson, R.A., 200
Central body, necessity for 194
Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, 286
Department of Agriculture and, 203
Federations, principal, 193
Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 208, 218
Funds, 202 _seq_.
Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, 149 _seq._
Hannon, Mr. P.J., 200
Inauguration, 191
_Irish, Homestead_, 190, 202
Monteagle, Lord, 192
Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, 119
Rural life social movements, 159, 199
Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200
Societies, number, etc. 192
Staff, &c. 200
Village libraries, 199
_Irish Homestead_, 190, 202
Irish language as a commercial medium, 158
"Irish night" in House of Commons, 2
Irish Question:--
Anomalies, 33
Character, a problem of, 32, 59, 164
Emigration, 40
English misunderstanding, 7 _seq._
Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, 161 _seq_.
Gaelic Revival and, 148
Historical grievances, 16 _seq_.
Home Rule (see that title)
Human problem, 2
Land Act marks a new era in, 11
Land system (see that title).
Our ignorance about ourselves 32
Parnell's death, effect of, 5
Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33
Rural life, problem, 39, 57, 263
Sentiment, force of, 15
Ulster's attitude important, 38
Itinerant Instructors, 126, 127, 271, 284
Johnson, Dr., on "economy," 278
Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- 157
Recess Committee, 218
Keenan, Sir Patrick:--
Itinerant instructors, 126, 127
Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):--
Work for Ireland, 118
Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy 274
Kildare Street Society, 123-125
Land Acts:--
1870, 23;
1881, 23, 24;
1891, Congested Districts, 243
1903:-- 10, 11, 42, 48, 245
Marks a new era in Ireland, 11
Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48
Land Conference:-- 93
Landed gentry not to be expatriated, 85
Nationalist leaders' attitude, 89
Land Purchase Acts, 25
Land Question and Tenure Question, 41, 42
Land system:-- 17
Causes of failure in Irish land system, 21
Dual ownership 25
Land Acts:
1870, 23;
1881, 23, 24;
1891, 243;
1903, 10, 11, 42, 48, 246.
Land Purchase Acts, 25
Legislation, 23 _seq_.
Peasant proprietorship, germs of, 25
Tenure question, 41, 42
Lawless, Emily:--
"With the Wild Geese," 92
Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," 167
Lea, Sir Thomas:--
Recess Committee, 218
Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, 212
Lecky, Mr.:--
Irish grievances, 14
Kildare Street Society, 124
Live stock improvement schemes, 279
Liverpool Financial Reform Association, 127
Local Government:-- 83
Balfour, Mr. Gerald, 224, 238, 240
Department of Agriculture and local effort,
Educative effect of, 90
Nationalist leaders' attitude 88
Success in working, 88, 240
Lucas, Mr., 77
Ludlow, Mr.:--
Co-operative movement, 184
McCarthy, Mr. Justin:--
Recess Committee, 215
Manchester, Co-operative Union 181
Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, 128, 129
Manures, Artificial--
Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, 282
Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement 189
Maynooth, influence of, 134 136, 138, 139
Mayo, Lord:--
Recess Committee, 218
_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ 269
Metropolitan School of Art, 230
Middlemen, 180
Monasteries and Convents, increase of, 108
Monteagle, Lord:--
Co-operative movement, 184
I.A.O.S. President, 192
Recess Committee 218
Moral timidity of Irish character, 65, 80, 81
Morals:--
Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, 115, 116
Mulhall, Mr. Michael:--
Recess Committee, 219
Munster Institute, Cork, 230, 274
Musgrave, Sir James:--
Recess Committee, 219
National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, 126
Nationalist Party:--
Home Rule, 35, 84
Land Conference and, 89
Local Government and, 88
Policy, 69
Qualifications of leaders, 90, 91
Recess Committee and, 222
Responsibility of leaders, 81
Tactics:-- 84 _seq._
Effect of on Irish political character, 80
Nationality:--
Education and nationality, 152 _seq._
Expansion of, outside party politics, 154
Modern conception of Irish nationality, 76
Neale, Vansittart:--
Co-operative movement, 184
O'Connell, 77
O'Conor Don:--
Recess Committee, 218
O'Dea, Dr.:--
University Commission, statements, 109, 141
O'Donnell, Dr.:--
Ploughing up of grazing lands, 43
O'Donovan, Father, 119
O'Dwyer, Dr.:--
Evidence before University Commission, 140
O'Gara, Dr.:--
On the cultivation of the land, 43
O'Grady, Standish, 154
Onslow, Lord:--
Agricultural organisation, benefit of, 242
O'Rahilly, Egan:--
Lament for the Irish clans, 27
Oyster Culture, 283
Parnell:-- 48, 78
Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, 5, 79, 80
Peasant industries, necessity for, 52
Peasant Proprietary:--
Agricultural organisation, necessity of, 44 _seq_.
Bright, John, and, 25
Peasant industries, necessity of, 52
Problem of next generation, 50, 51
Penal laws, effect of, 104, 132
Plantation system, 76
Politics:--
Agitation as a policy, 82, 83
America, Irish in politics in, 70 _seq,_
Gaelic revival and politics, 156, 157
Irishmen as politicians,. 69 _seq._
"Irish night" in House of Commons, 92
Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, 80
Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, 59, 61 _seq_.
"One-man" system, 79
Political leadership and industrial leadership, 212
Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33
Political "wilderness," 91
"Priest in politics," 117
Separation, 87
Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, 66
Unionists (Irish):--
Industrial element and, 67, 68
Influence in Irish life, 63 _seq._
Population.--
Relation of population to area, 49
Potato culture improvement schemes, 282
Production and distribution, problems, 179, 180
Protestantism:--
Duty of, 119
Ulster, 98, 99
Raiffeisen System of banking, 195-198
Railways--Light railway system, 243
_Raimeis_, 153
Recess Committee:-- 83, 210 _seq._ 238, 241
Cadogan, Lord, and, 224, 225
Constitution proposed, 215
Finlay, Father Thomas, 218
Gill, Mr. T.P. 219
Ideas leading to its formation, 213
M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, 215
Members, 218
Mulhall, Mr. Michael, 219
Nationalist members, 222
Recommendations, 220
Redmond, Mr. John, and, 217
Report, 10, 129, 221
Results, 223 _seq._
State-aid question, 223
Tisserand's memorandum, 220
Redmond, Mr. John:--
Recess Committee, 217
Religion:--
Influence of on Irish life, 59, 94 _seq._
Protestantism, 98, 99, 119
Roman Catholic Church (see that title).
Sectarian animosities, 98, 99
Toleration, meaning of word, 95
Ritualistic movement, 99
Robertson, Lord:--
University Commission, 140
Roman Catholic Church:--
Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., 107, 108, 109
Clergy:--
Action and attitude towards questions of the day, 105 _seq_.
Authority of, 98, 105 _seq._
Co-operative movement, 119
Moral influence, 115, 116
Political influence, 77, 117
Temperance reform, 112, 114
Economic conditions, influence on 101 _seq._
Effect on Irish character, 101-105, 110
Higher education of Roman Catholics, 97, 132
Rosebery, Lord:--
Attitude towards Home Rule, 4
Ross, Mr. John:--
Recess Committee, 218
Royal College of Science, 229, 268, 270
Royal Commission on University Education, 118, 128, 140
Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, 279
Royal University education, defects in, 128
Rural life:--
Emigration, causes of, 40, 116
Gaelic revival's influence on, 159
Industries, 52, 262, 266
Problem of, 39, 51, 263
Rehabilitation, 159, 199
Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200
Salisbury, Lord:--
"Twenty years of resolute government," 61
Saunderson, Colonel:--
Recess Committee, 217
Scotch-Irish in America, 71
Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, 282
Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement).
Sentiment:--
Anti-English, cause of, 13 _seq_.
Force of in Irish question, 15, 127
Separation, Home Rule and, 87
Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:--
Irish in America, 111
Sinclair, Thomas:--
Recess Committee, 218
Social order, Irish attachment to, 54
_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, 15
_Speed's Chronicle_:--
Con O'Neal, etc. 57
Spencer, Lord, 168
Starkie, Dr.:--
Mr. Wyse's education scheme, 126
State-aid:-- 45, 211, 219, 220, 223
Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") 164
Stopford Brooke, 92
Swine fever, 251
Technical Instruction, 130, 228, 234 _seq_. 257, 263, 267, 279
Temperance Reform, 112 _seq_.
Tenure question and land question, 41
Tillage, decrease of, 42
Tisserand, M.:--
Recess Committee memorandum, 220
Tobacco culture, 282
Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._
Two Irelands, 37
Ulster:--
Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, 38
Home Rule, objections to, 66, 86, 87
Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, 66
Unionist (Irish) Party:--
Industrial element in Irish life and, 67, 68, 86
Influence in Irish life, 63_seq._
Policy, 68
Ulster and Home Rule, 66,86 _seq._
United Ireland, first real conception of, 77
United Irish League, 90
University Question:-- 99, 109
Catholic University:--
O'Dea, Dr., on, 141
O'Dwyer, Dr., on, 140
Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, 151
Maynooth, influence of, 134, 136, 138, 139
Place of the University in education, 133
Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._
University reform necessary, 138
Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, 184
Village libraries, 119, 199
Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:--
People's banks, 199
Wyndham, Mr.:--
Land Act. 1903, 10, 12
Wyse, Mr. Thomas:--
Scheme of Irish education, 125
Yeats, W.B. 154
Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:--
Agricultural banks, 199
End of Project Gutenberg's Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett