PATRICK J. HOGAN. TD. MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE. 1922 - 1932 A STUDY OF A LEADING MEMBER OF THE FIRST GOVERNMENT OF INDEPENDENT IRELAND JOAN M CULLEN ABSTRACT JOAN M CULLEN, PATRICK J HOGAN TD. MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE. 1922- 1932 A STUDY OF A LEADING MEMBER OF THE FIRST GOVERNMENT OF INDEPENDENT IRELAND This dissertation deals with the ministerial career of Patrick Hogan, who was Minister for Agriculture in the first governments of independent Ireland His ten years in office spanned the creation and consolidation of the new state, and he set his mark upon the development of the country’s largest industry, agriculture The dissertation analyses Hogan’s career in terms of his role in national politics, his influence on agricultural policy and his relations with his civil servants, his contribution to the general business of the Cosgrave governments, firstly as an extern minister and after 1927 as a member of the executive council, and his activities in matters including the quality control of agricultural produce, land ownership, rationalisation of the dairy industry, and the development of the first sugar factory It also discusses the gradual shift towards a policy of protection Finally, it casts some light on the political style of the Cumann na nGaedhael party The dissertation is based principally upon research in the records of the Department of Agriculture, and in the surviving papers of ministers of the time Submitted to Dublin City University in respect of the requirements for the award of the degree of PhD This thesis is based on research conducted while m receipt of a studentship from the Dublin City University Business School, Dublin City University Supervisor Dr Eunan O’Halpin Head of Department Prof Anthony Walsh August 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certification of thesis l Abbreviations u Foreword HI INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Patrick Hoean and Irish Politics 1891-1936 19 CHAPTER 2 1922-1925 75 CHAPTER 3 1925-1926 128 CHAPTER 4 1927-1932 188 CHAPTER 5 The Resolution of the Land Ouestion 240 CHAPTER 6 Hogan’s last vears 1932-1936 and Conclusion 294 CONCLUSION 303 BIBLIOGRAPHY 309 CERTIFICATION OF THESIS I certify that this thesis is my own work, conducted and presented under the supervision of Dr Eunan O’Halpin in the Dublin City University Business School, Dublin City University Joafft Cullen, July 1993 t. ABBREVIATIONS AG1\ Department of Agriculture files CD Commons Debates DD Dail Debates DF Department of Finance DFA Department of Foreign Affairs DJ Department of Justice SD Seanad Debates FA Franciscan Archives, Kilhney, Co Dublin JB Joseph Brennan Papers NA National Archives NL National Library, Dublin UCC University College Cork UCD University College Dublin archives ACC Agricultural Credit Corporation BGA Irish Beet Growers Association CDB Congested Districts Board Con Conservative CCA County Committee of Agriculture DATI Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction Far Farmers’ Party FF Fianna Fail I AOS Irish Agricultural Organisation Society IFU Irish Farmers’ Union ICMA Irish Creamery Managers’ Association IRA Irish Republican Army Lab Labour Party MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries NCIDC North Cork Industrial Development Committee UDC Urban District Council TB Tuberculosis FOREWARD Throughout this thesis I have used ‘Ireland’ or Irish rather than Saorstat or the Free State to describe the twenty six counties after independence Where I refer to the minister, the secretary or use any other official designation it can be taken as a rule that this refers to the Minister for Agriculture or officials of the Department of Agriculture unless it is otherwise indicated I would like to express my thanks to Monica Duffy for allowing me to use letters and other documents which belonged to her father, Patrick Hogan Thanks are also due to his daughters Bridget, Nora and Margaret and his old friend John Joe Broderick, who all made me so welcome when I interviewed them m Kilrickle, Co Galway and Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath I would also like to mention Tom Duggan of the Department of Agriculture who was very instructive on the workings of the Land Commission, Una O’Higgins O’Malley and the late Mrs Patrick McGilligan, whose fond memories of Patrick Hogan brought him to life for me I would also like to thank the former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave for giving me so much of his valuable time The staff of the National Archives in the Four Courts where I spent almost five months reading the Department of Agriculture files deserve a word of thanks for the hard work they did on my behalf producing the hundreds of files which I examined I would also like to mention the staff in the National Archives in Bishops Street, who were always pleasant and helpful Throughout the past five years I have been sustained by my fellow post-graduate students in DCU who have listened without audible complaints to my less than exciting revelations about policy making in independent Ireland m the 1920s and are in receipt therefore of my undying gratitude, and Eileen Colgan whose skill made the completion of this thesis possible A special word of thanks to my supervisor Dr O’Halpin for his patience and encouragement Finally, I would like to thank Peter for his cooperation and support over the last five years INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the ministerial career of Patrick Hogan between 1922 and 1932 as a member of the first functioning government of Ireland. This period has been characterised by commentators and historians as one of consolidation and conservatism. Given the turbulent time in which Hogan operated it would have been quite an achievement even to have consolidated and conserved. But he did more than that and it says a lot about attitudes towards Ireland’s most important industry that this has been largely ignored. There are historical and political reasons for this neglect. After 1932 politics and economics became entangled through the so called economic war. The Fianna Fail government’s actions have been represented as Ireland making a stand against the Empire in order to establish the sort of economic independence which Griffith had proposed, namely, self-sufficiency. In contrast the preceding decade is portrayed as one in which the governments were pro-British, slavishly following policies which Britain approved. Criticism of government during the 1920s has been coloured by this attitude which has tended to discount the achievements which were made by all its branches while concentrating on the dead hand of conservatism which is seen to pervade every policy and activity. One of the main objectives of this study is, therefore, to determine if these criticisms are justified or if the unpopularity of Cumann na nGaedheal was the natural consequence of being in government during a particularly difficult decade. There have been few scholarly studies of how the first governments actually operated on how cabinet government in Ireland worked in the 1920s. Very little attention has been paid to the working relationships of ministers and their civil servants which played a key role 1 m preventing the breakdown of the administrative system which would have threatened the stability of the new state Recently there has been some work carried out in this area Valiulis’ biography of Richard Mulcahy, Portrait of a Revolutionary, General Richard Mulcahy and the Founding of the Free State might have thrown light on these areas However the work concentrates on the army crisis which took place in 1924 and which was an extraordinary event rather than on the more mundane years which Mulcahy spent as Minister for Local Government and Health and says nothing about Mulcahy’s relations with his officials Seamas O’Buachalla’s interesting work on Education Policy in Twentieth Century Ireland does look at Cumann na nGaedheal mimsters for Education as part of his study of policy making and the politics of education in Ireland Neither study supplies enough material from which to draw any broad conclusions 1 Patrick Hogan is a good candidate for a study of this kind His ministry, Agriculture, embraced the most important industry m the country in which more than fifty per cent of the population were directly engaged Farming also covered a wide variety of groups ranging from agricultural labourers, small farmers, and comfortable farmers to the remnants of the old landlord class The addition of Lands to his portfolio in 1922 put him in charge of the dangerous area of land distribution and reform The violence and lawlessness associated with the land question had again become endemic during the civil war This put Hogan at the forefront of the drive to restore law and order in the countryside at a particularly sensitive time He was, therefore, involved in a significant number of areas which touched the lives of the majority of Irish people 2 Hogan’s agricultural policies were not influenced to any great extent by constitutional issues This is important as before independence the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI), established in 1899, built an identity of its own While its early years were dogged by controversies, after the ousting of its founding minister, Sir Horace Plunkett in 1907, DATI carried out its legislative and regulative work away from the political limelight and without much of the bureaucratic friction it had initially encountered This appears to have remained the case during Hogan’s ministry as there is little evidence of any other departments becoming involved m the business of the Department of Agriculture between 1922-1932