The "Dawn of the Practical": Horace Plunkett and the Cooperative Movement

Abstract

The name of Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (1854-1932) is unlikely to be found in any catalog of Irish heroes; he is more likely to be portrayed as a prominent might-have-been, consigned to a forgotten corner of Irish history.1 Like some of them, he may arguably be considered intractable thing, an unyielding moderate?a species to which Irish history has not necessarily been kind.2 Superficially, it is inaccurate to say he is forgotten. Most educated Irish persons can correctly identify him as the founder of the cooperative movement in Ireland, and the organizations he founded?among them the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) and the Plunkett Founda tion?are still going concerns, although both face the perennial problem of inadequate funding.3 Yet Plunkett s contribution to the creation of the modern Irish state remains relatively unrecognized. He is no more heralded today than when he felt compelled to quit his country and enter self-imposed exile in Eng land in 1923, after the burning and destruction of his home near Dublin by IRA irregulars. Although the cooperative movement was Plunkett's life work, his restless energy involved him on many fronts. Over the four decades that encompassed the Irish Revival, the Home Rule debates, the Anglo-Irish and civil wars, and the