A new book exploring the changes in rural Ireland over the past century, grew out of a conference held at the University of Galway after the college acquired the archive of the voluntary community development group, Muintir na Tíre. Its editors Tomás Finn and Tony Varley talk to JUDY MURPHY.

In 1943, Éamon de Valera, in a speech that became infamous, described his vision for rural Ireland, a countryside that would be “bright with cosy homesteads . . . whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens”.

He’s often been criticised for his references to ‘maidens’ and ‘frugal comforts’, but, as historian Mary Daly points out in a new book, Inside Rural Ireland: Power and Change since Independence, “it could be argued that his dream has been realised in 21st Century Ireland”.

The maidens and frugal comforts have been largely consigned to history, she observes, but modern Ireland has “many cosy (centrally heated) homesteads, athletic youths and sturdy children romping around”. Although, when it comes to rural Ireland’s centrally heated homesteads, the past week has shown how fragile that infrastructure is.

Mary Daly, Professor Emeritus in History at UCD, makes her observations in this book, published by UCD Press, which is edited by Tomás Finn and Tony Varley of the University of Galway.

Inside Rural Ireland draws on a broad range of expertise to chart the changes in the Irish countryside over the past century.

It grew out of a conference, held in 2018 at the university, to mark the presentation of Muintir na Tíre’s archives to UG’s Hardiman Library.  These archives form the backbone of the book, which has essays from historians, geographers, sociologists and political scientists, among others.

Tomás lectures in history at UG, while Tony is a retired senior lecturer in Social Science and Politics. Like Tomás, he’s a member of the university’s Social Sciences Research Centre. Sixty years old this year, it encourages people from across different academic departments to co-operate on social research.

In the early days of the Free State, people in rural Ireland faced serious challenges, which continued through the 30s. Muintir na Tíre (The people of the Land) was founded in 1931 by Fr John Hayes, as a co-operative society to help these people out of poverty.

Its initial iteration “went wallop”, says Tony Varley. But Fr Hayes re-established it in 1937 as a broader community movement, based on parish councils. It played a vital role in the development of rural Ireland through the decades, although it wasn’t without its controversies. And it still exists, best-known for its Community Alert text-based, crime-prevention scheme.

Fr Hayes (1887-1957), whose family had been evicted from their Limerick farm in the 1880s, studied in France after initially training for the priesthood in Ireland. He subsequently worked in England, among the Irish emigrant community. His training abroad and his experiences in England helped shape his view that people needed to work together if rural Ireland were to have any chance of surviving. The challenges it faced changed as the century continued, with emigration and poverty dominating debate.

In the 1960s, Ireland began to look outwards and joined the EEC in 1972, something that brought dividends and different challenges.

Pictured: Tony Varley and Tomás Finn, editors of ‘Inside Rural Ireland – Power and Change since Independence’. Photo: Brian Harding.