CHAPTER IV. 

 THE MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 



It was in Ireland that, thanks mainly to the practical 

 patriotism and untiring zeal and devotion of Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, the principle of agricultural co-operation was first 

 established in the United Kingdom. 



Ireland had suffered no less than other countries from the 

 various conditions affecting agriculture in Europe generally 

 of which I have already spoken, besides having difficulties 

 and disadvantages essentially her own ; and, struck by the 

 state of things he saw around him in Ireland on his return 

 from a prolonged residence in the United States, Sir Horace 

 (then Mr.) Plunkett conceived the idea, in 1889, of taking 

 action with a view to bringing about an economic improve- 

 ment in Irish conditions on the lines of combined action. 



At that time agricultural co-operation was, of course, far 

 less developed in European countries than is the case to-day, 

 and the only precedent which Sir Horace was then able to 

 find for the New Movement he proposed to start was the one 

 furnished by the Co-operative Movement in England, which, 

 however, originally founded by the Rochdale Pioneers, was 

 mainly concerned in the creation of consumers' societies for 

 the supply of household or other requisites. So, in company 

 with Lord Monteagle and Mr. R. A. Anderson, his first two 

 associates in the campaign on which he started, Sir Horace 

 became a regular attendant at the congresses of the Co- 

 operative Union in England and a no less persistent seeker 

 for information at the headquarters of the Union in Man- 

 chester. From such champions of co-operation as Vansittart 

 Neale, Tom Hughes and George Holyoake much sympathy 

 and encouragement were received. An Irish section was 

 set up by the Co-operative Union which, also, contributed to 



