Ireland must begin its imaginative reconstruction of a
civilization by first considering that type which, in the earlier
civilizations of the world, has been slave, serf, or servile, working
either on land or at industry, and must construct with reference to it.
These workers must be the central figures, and how their material,
intellectual, and spiritual needs are met must be the test of value of
the social order we evolve.
IV.
In Ireland we begin naturally our consideration of this problem with the
folk of the country, pondering all the time upon our ideal--the linking
up of individuals with each other and with the nation. Since the
destruction of the ancient clans in Ireland almost every economic factor
in rural life has tended to separate the farmers from each other and
from the nation, and to bring about an isolation of action; and that
was so until the movement for the organization of agriculture was
initiated by Sir Horace Plunkett and his colleagues in that patriotic
association, the Irish Agricultural Organization Society.
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