George Russell [AE], la Coopération et l'État en Irlande durant la Première Guerre mondiale

Abstract

When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, the agricultural co-operative movement was one of the largest economic organisations in Ireland. During the First World War, Britain’s food security emerged as an economic imperative for the government, which the co-operative movement’s leaders supported. However, increased state intervention through agricultural regulations damaged the relationship between the state and co-operative movement. This article considers the impact of this redrawing of the state apparatus in Ireland through the intellectual response of Ireland’s leading co-operative theorist, George Russell [AE]. AE’s role as editor of the movement’s journal, The Irish Homestead, provided him with a unique platform to observe and respond publicly to the changing nature of the state in Ireland. He viewed the state’s wartime interventions into the organisation of food production as increasingly tyrannical and inimical to the long-term interests of Irish farmers. The article argues that AE’s critique of the wartime state’s role in the organisation of agriculture contributed to the breakdown in Anglo-Irish relations. Importantly, AE’s response demonstrates the prominence given to an economic critique of British power in Ireland which fed into a wider political critique adopted by radical nationalists that has provided the main site of historical interest.