The relevance ofSir Horace Plunkettto modernco-operative enterprise

Peter Couchman

•Where his ideas came from

•How they were delivered

•The lessons for us today

“It was a period of my life thatI took a strange, somewhatvague idealism. That either theEnglish or the Irish socialeconomy, in which I had beenbrought up would endure, I didnot believe. It some ways it allseemed wrong…”

“Whether it would not be more reasonable to amend our state than to complain of it and how far this may be in our power”

Bishop Berkeley

“And so my mind turnedtowards certain simpleeconomic schemes.”

“Few have any conceptionhow much the real

movement, which has beendefined as organised

self-help, has done to raisethe moral, social and material

condition of the Englishworking classes.”

“I have often regretted thatthe Rochdale Pioneerscontinued to divide up achest of tea instead of

killing a co-operative pig”

Better farmingBetter business

Better living

TechnicalEconomic

Social

“He had fifty unsuccessful meetings before he could get the first farmer's creamery started. Fifty meetings without a result! I think most of us would be ashamed to face an audience after two dozen unsuccessful attempts to get a hearing.”

George Russell (A.E.)

“Works without faithare of no more use in

agricultural co-operationthan in religion”

“It will take the bestmen of Ireland tocreate effectiveco-operative structuresfor farmers, but thebest men in Irelandare with us and thetask will be performed.”

“to show how suchco-operation may bestbe effected, what formof society may befounded and carriedon with profit to themembers and thewhole community.”

“The Better Livingis the crux.”

“That this has been the main interest of the Donor’s life to work for rural, social and economic development and being most fully convinced by an experience of many years that it is not enough to afford to the worker on the land a livelihood but that it is necessary to secure a life enriched with the social thought and interests of modern civilisation and that the prosperity of the rural community depends not only on greater efficiency in the methods of the farming industry and on the more economic organisation of its business, but also on the development of a rural social life, a policy which is summed up in the words “better farming, better business, better living” and in particular desiring that there should be greater facilities for the systematic study of the principles and methods of agricultural and industrial co-operation in which lies possibilities of great promise for the future well-being of the rural community and of the nation as a whole and in the world-wide spread of which principles is to be found a growing and enduring bond of international sympathy based on the sure foundation of democratic ideas which underlie true co-operation;”

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“The work of tomorrowwill largely consist ofthe impossible of today.If this adds to thedifficulty, it also addsto the fun.”

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Email:peter.couchman@plunkett.co.uk