IrelandGenWeb-L Archives

Archiver > IrelandGenWeb > 2003-02 > 1044913476


From: "Jean Rice" <>
Subject: [IGW] Horace PLUNKETT (1854-1932) - Agrarian Reformer (Meath/Louth)
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 13:47:41 -0800


The PLUNKETT family: Originally Anglo-Norman invaders who settled at Beaulieu, Co. Louth, and later established branches at Killeen and Dunsany, Co. Meath.

Horace Plunkett (1854-1932), was a pioneer in agricultural cooperation in Ireland. Born into the Anglo-Irish nobility, Plunkett managed the family estate at Dunsany, where he established a co-operative shop in 1878. From 1879 to 1889 Plunkett ranched in American, in Wyoming. This work, in addition to his inheritance, provided financial independence and a detailed knowledge of farming.

Returning to Ireland in 1889, Plunkett launched a successful co-operative movement, recruited Unionist and Parnellite politicians to the Recess Committee (1895), to discuss the future economic development of Ireland. Bringing together Nationalist and Unionist MPs, it pioneered the limited consensual politics of Edwardian Ireland. Its report, submitted in August of 1896, urged the creation of an Irish department of agriculture and industries (later partly realized in the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction), and the extension of technical education. In 1899, Plunkett became first vice-president of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction..

Plunkett was also active in constitutional politics. In 1892 he was elected as Liberal Unionist MP for South Dublin. However, despite his successful appeal to Irish farmers, he had little political dexterity and was defeated in the general election of 1900 owing to the intervention of a rival Unionist candidate.

Plunkett's most influential publication, "Ireland in the New Century," published in 1904, created widespread offense because of its ominous reflections concerning the influence of the Catholic church. He remained a nominal Unionist until around 1911. He was chairman of the Irish Convention (July 1917--April. 1918) , and the founder of the Irish Dominion League in 1919.

Horace PLUNKETT was a great agrarian reformer, but an indifferent party politician: he was an Edwardian centrist who, in common with others of this type, was a victim of the increasing polarization of Irish politics.


This thread: