es in Irish life there is one which has been greatly
misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much
of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is
really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while
its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably
tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance,
the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the
Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer,
having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a
variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of
very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in
the intellectual sphere--the rehabilitation of Ireland from within. But
in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I
naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it
began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry
from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more
amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an
apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all
my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and
practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic
speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon
a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its
principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant
mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its
hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I
must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress.

The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society[28] exerts its influence--a
now established and rapidly-growing influence--mainly through the medium
of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more
directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a
sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an
important part--I should say a necessary part--in the reconstruction of
our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my
argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed about
the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was
demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the mos