292 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



bottomless bogs, placed far away from tlie outer world, without 

 at all easy means of transport, with a goodly number of poor little 

 five-acre farmlets dotted over the country, of the five acres of which 

 at most two acres are in every case capable of being cultivated, and 

 even they being strewn with bits of rock. To exist at all, the poor 

 denizens of this region had to eke out a meagre living by taking 

 seasonal work in Scotland. It was a regular thing for the girls of 

 the place to offer themselves at the annual Ulster hiring fairs. By 

 such means just enough was scraped together to satisfy the greedy 

 gombeen men providing the necessaries of life at high prices, and 

 occasionally a little cash at exorbitant rates of interest, who, with 

 such an abject custom to exploit, led a rollicking life and acquired 

 an absolute sway over the poverty-stricken neighbourhood. In 

 1903, to bring some relief, a co-operative credit bank was established 

 in this district, and its results were very soon seen and distinctly 

 satisfactory. However, this operation scarcely touched the gom- 

 been man in his corrupt trading. Mr. Gallagher, one of the small 

 farmers spoken of, read in the Irish Homestead about the Irish Agri- 

 cultural Co-operative Wholesale Society guaranteeing its fertilisers — 

 of which commodity the Dungloe small holders used a certain quantity. 

 He asked his gombeen man if he would give the same guarantee, 

 and was simply laughed at for his pains. Such a thing was never 

 dreamt of in Dungloe. He went to another and asked the same 

 question, only to receive the same answer. Thus repulsed, he 

 addressed himself to the Wholesale Society mentioned, the secretary 

 of which advised him that the Society was allowed to do business 

 only with societies. Well, Mr. Gallagher would form a society. 

 With some difficulty he got thirteen others to join him, and the 

 fourteen formed a little co-operative society having its registered 

 office in a forlorn cottage up a deserted boreen. The society got 

 its fertilisers from the Wholesale Society, and the result was rather 

 surprisingly satisfactory — alike in quality and in price. Thereupon 

 it began to deal in domestic requirements also — mainly groceries, 

 such as meal, tea, sugar and flour. The Dungloe people soon found 

 out what it meant to be supplied by such a shop, and folk came 

 trudging up the boreen in spite of its untempting situation. Now 

 this hit the gombeeners home, and they decided that they would 

 not stand it. " If you won't buy your groceries from us, we won't 

 take your eggs from you." Nothing daunted, Mr. Gallagher went 

 abroad to find other buyers. And he found them— at a distance ; 

 but, taking the eggs to them, he realised a rather higher price than 

 the gombeeners gave. Accordingly he had no lack of goods to sell. 



