IRISH INDUSTRIES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 10 May 1912, Page 9

IRISH INDUSTRIES.

Anything relating to Ireland is of particular'interest jnst now, ami the annual sale of the Koyal Irish industries, held in London last month, drew a larger audience than usual. "There, is no more interesting chapter in the history of modern industrial schemes than 'that relating to the Irish Industries movement," says tno "Pall Mall Uazettc." "It is a movement timt has come slowly, and "not without much effort and agitation. The aim has been not so much, to help Ireland as to leach the Irish people to help themselves, and to draw out the latent talents of the rata in some form of productive enterprise. It has resulted in the building of a new iind more prosperous Ireland on the ruins of ancient poverty ami discontent." And of the three people who have worked hardest to briny about this spirit ot industrial enterprise in Ireland, two are women—Ladv Aberdeen and Lady London'derry. It was Ladv Aberdeen who, 2;> I vcar's ago, founded the Irish Industries ! As«ocitaion. Lady Londonderry has aiso I been indefatigable in helping the association, and it was through her eflorts that the London sale was first held, fifteen I \e-ars ajro, and has become an established annual «istom. These sales aro carried out on strictly business lines, with none of the bazaar element about them, and, as there is no middleman, most of the money goes to actual workers themselves in the poor cottages in Ireland. The third person whoso name is closely associated with the Irish Industries is Sir Horace Plunkeft, whose life is n contradiction of the statement Mutt Ireland has never been helped by her own upper classes. He has done more than anyone else to convince his countrymen tnat the regeneration of Ireland must be worked bv Irishmen in Ireland, and he ftrmiv believes that no project which is theoretically sound need ever be rejected. ;_ J