n a single movement, and not dissipated in the
pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of
concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely
related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to
their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to the
intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial
character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of
work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong
with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in
the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems
which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political
millenium.

It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in
creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent
factor than all the others put together--economic interest and
industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two
Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England,
is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish
Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two
sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin
to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate,
but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our
wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of
their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief
prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life
of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and
conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the
wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of
the whole community that the North should pursue and further develop
its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community
has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these
are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other
parts of the United Kingdom[4]; and if they do not receive, vitally
important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large
share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what
is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question.

Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing populatio