59 8 IRELAND 



Manufactures. Although agriculture still is, and must remain, the chief industry of 

 the country, Ireland is continuing to fall into line as a manufacturing country. Irish 

 expansion in this direction is largely due to the industrial revival movement. Great 

 local forces have been at work in recent years in forwarding this revival. They received 

 a considerable stimulus from the date (1907) of the International Exhibition in Dublin. 

 There have since 1909 been exhibitions on a smaller scale, but of a similar nature, in 

 Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Drogheda, Londonderry and elsewhere throughout the country. 

 The Ui Breasil exhibition at Ballsbridge in the summer of 1911 gave another immense 

 impetus to the movement. It is a common fallacy to suppose that the industrial life of 

 Ireland is confined to Ulster. This is even less true at the present time than was the 

 case four or five years ago. In many towns of the other three provinces thriving in- 

 dustries are to be found, small, indeed, when compared with the industries of Great 

 Britain, but still appreciable. The " Made-in-Ireland " movement exercises an in- 

 creasingly strong protectionist influence. It is supported by various political and 

 economic associations such as the Gaelic League, Sinn Fein, and the Industrial Develop- 

 ment Associations. Irish industry covers a far wider range than is commonly supposed. 

 Industrial Development Associations have been formed, in addition to the original ones 

 at Dublin, Belfast and Cork, in Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Sligo and other smaller 

 towns. The Cork Association in its annual report for 1911 speaks of an exhibition of 

 Irish goods at its offices as including samples of woollens, linens, flannelettes, calicoes, 

 threads, silk-gauze, maps, stationery, mosaics, marbles, lead- pipes, etc. The Dublin 

 Association is, not unnaturally, more successful than any other. This is illustrated by 

 the reports for two consecutive years. In the 1910 report articles which "could and 

 ought to be manufactured in Ireland " include paper, bottles, stained-glass, church and 

 school furniture and accessories, shop-fronts, general office requisites, soap, matches, 

 candles and flour. In the report for the next year (1911) it is stated that all these arti- 

 cles are now " obtainable in Ireland on competitive lines." 



There are at present some twenty hosiery factories and as many tweed mills in Ireland. 

 These new industries appear to be making progress, though it cannot be specifically estimated. 

 The woollen-making industry has consolidated its position. A factory in Galway paid in 

 1912 a dividend of twelve per cent. There are eleven tobacco factories, besides the estab- 

 lished ones in Belfast, scattered over the West and South, employing 3060 hands. All of 

 them suffer from the competition of the Imperial Tobacco Trust; this reason was advanced 

 for the closing of a Dublin factory, which employed 300 hands, m August 1912. The Irish 

 tobacco industry receives a small subsidy from the Treasury, but this ceases in 1913. 



The linen industry is by far the largest industry in Ireland. The number of spindles is 

 returned approximately at 946,000. The number of power looms shows a large increase to 

 36,892, of which 21,000 are in Belfast, 13,000 elsewhere in Ulster, while the rest represent 

 small factories in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Drogheda and elsewhere. Next in importance 

 is the shipbuilding industry. 



The industrial troubles of 1911 and 1912 affected Ireland equally with the rest of the 

 United Kingdom. In August 1911 a strike of the Dublin seamen and firemen inter- 

 rupted the trade of the capital, though only for a brief period. A railway strike, (which 

 had no connection with the strike in Great Britain but was begun in sympathy with a 

 porterage strike) followed, and there were several local disputes, of which the most 

 serious were a bakery strike in Dublin and a transport workers' stoppage at Wexford. 

 The coal strike of March-April 1912, which sent up the supply to famine prices, did an 

 indirect benefit to Irish industry by causing a development, which has since been par- 

 tially maintained, in the output from the collieries at Athy and Kilkenny. 



Fisheries. That the Irish fisheries are a valuable asset to the country is established by 

 the fact that the total value of fish landed in Ireland, and sold, was, according to recent 

 returns, 375,636 against a total of 363,801 in the preceding year. But there has been a 

 serious falling away in the number of vessels engaged in the Irish sea fisheries a decrease of 

 324 vessels to 5652. The fisheries give employment to some 20,000 men. The Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction has granted loans to fishermen for the purchase of 

 boats and gear and the installation of petrol power. A station was established in 1910 at 

 Courtmacsherry, where improved methods of curing, classification and packing are taught. 

 The whale fisheries of Inishkea and Blacksocl, which were decaying, have also been, fostered 



