Sir Horace Plunkett, the first Vice-President, as a Unionist, was replaced by Mr. T.W.  Russell, a Home Ruler.  On the assumption that such an Office was Parliamentary, its holder standing or falling with the British Ministry of the day, the step was quite justifiable, and even necessary.  On the opposite assumption, confirmed by the Departmental Committee, the step was unjustifiable, that is, on the theory of the Union.  An Irish Parliament alone should have the power of displacing Irish Ministers.

[53] See footnote, p. 159.

[54] “Organization and Policy of the Department,” Official Pamphlet.

[55]

STATISTICS OF THE IRISH AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT TO DECEMBER 31, 1909, WITH NUMBER OF SOCIETIES IN EXISTENCE ON DECEMBER 31, 1910 (SUPPLIED BY THE I.A.O.S.): 

-------------------------------------------------------

--------------
Description. |Number of  |Membership.|Paid-up  |Loan     |Turnover.
|Societies. |           |Shares.  |Capital. |
|-----------|           |         |         |
|1910.|1909.|           |         |         |
------------------------------------------------------------

---------
Creameries   | 392 | 380 |   44,213  | 138,354 | 111,365 | 1,841,400
Agricultural | 169 | 155 |   16,050  |   6,253 |  40,326 |   112,222
Credit       | 237 | 234 |   18,422  |   —­    |  56,469 |    57,641
Poultry      |  18 |  18 |    6,152  |   2,292 |   4,026 |    64,342
Industries   |  21 |  21 |    1,375  |   1,267 |   1,450 |     7,666
Miscellaneous|  37 |  15 |    4,633  |  15,015 |   2,864 |    48,987
Flax         |   9 |   9 |      589  |     482 |   5,796 |     2,286
Federations  |   3 |   3 |      227  |   6,753 |   6,360 |   259,925
------------------------------------------------------------

---------
| 886 | 835 |   91,661  | 170,416 | 228,656 | 2,394,469
------------------------------------------------------------

---------

[56] An Irish Trademark has been secured, and has proved of great value “Irish Weeks,” for the furtherance of the sale of Irish products, are held.  The organ of the Association is the Irish Industrial Journal, published weekly in Dublin.

[57] On December 31, 1909, Irish was taught as an “extra subject” in 3,006 primary schools out of 8,401, and in 161 schools in Irish-speaking districts in the West a bi-lingual programme of instruction was in force (Report of Committee of National Education, 1910).  Forty-six thousand pupils passed the test of the inspectors.  Irish in 1910 was made a compulsory subject for matriculation at the National University.

[58] The election by Nationalist votes of Lord Ashtown, a militant Unionist peer of the most uncompromising type, in the spring of 1911 to one of the Galway District Councils is a good recent example of this tendency.

[59] Permissive powers exist for County Councils to enforce compulsory attendance.

[60] Including 342 convent, 54 monastery, 125 workhouse, and 71 model schools.