PREFACE

Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed
to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon
constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh
practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture
and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to
revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a
department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary
effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are
each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction
with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation
to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and
present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these
movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration
by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish
people.

I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to
the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a
subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated
controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain
thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish
problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I
was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the
essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to