The 'Applied Christianity' conference 'Towards a Better Ireland' took place in January 1926 in the Friends Meeting House in Eustace St, Dublin. This was an attempt on the part of the all-Ireland Protestant community to assert their role in civil society, and to attempt the uphill task of making democracy work under Partition. The Roman Catholic Church did not participate. I reproduce here the participation list, and the Introduction by one J Sinclair Stevenson. I abstract the contributions of two of the contributors whom we have encountered in the JJ saga, Lionel Smith-Gordon and Professor RM Henry; also some of the others which are of interest. JJ almost certainly was present; he would have had an eye on the Protestant vote in the coming Seanad election.

The conference had some sponsorship from the Protestant business community: Cathcart's motor works in Rathmines, Lamb's preserves, Hinch and sons gardeners, Bower's builders, Clow's the oatmeal millers in Portadown, and the Talbot Press, who printed the Proceedings.

Participation List

Rev J E DAVY MA BD, Professor of Biblical Literature in Presbyterian College, Belfast. Author of Our Faith in God, The Changing Vesture of the Faith.

MRS DAVIES, MA, Lecturer for a time at the International People's College, Elsinore, has made a special study of Danish Conditions.

MISS HAIRE-FORSTER, Chief Woman Officer in the Free State Department of Industry and Commerce.

MR NUGENT HARRIS, London.#, Speaker and Organiser for the Village Club movement.

PROFESSOR R M HENRY, MA, Professor of Latin in Queen's University, Belfast. Author of The Evolution of Sinn Fein.

Miss P HERON, Secretary of the Belfast Girls' Club Union.

MRS J HUGHES, Fethard, Co Tipperary, is specially interested in Rural Libraries.

Miss GWENAN JONES, PhD, Lecturer in Education in Aberystwyth University.

MR. KENNETH LINDSAY, BA (Oxon), Toynbee Hall. Member of Stepney Borough Council and Board of Guardians, and Parliamentary Candidate for. Harrow; formerly President of the Oxford Union Society.

DR R W LIVINGSTONE MA. Litt.D., Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University and late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Author of The Greek Spirit and its Meaning for Us. Editor of The Legacy of Greece, The Pageant of Greece.

CANON C E RAVEN, DD, Liverpool. One of the Hon. Secretaries of the Copec Conference, 1924. Author of What Think Ye of Christ, Our Salvation.

MRS TRUDD, Collon, Co. Louth, is an active supporter of the United Irishwomen.

MR LIONEL SMITH-GORDON, MA (Oxon.), Managing Director of the Industrial Trust Company of Ireland. Director of the Irish Statesman. Formerly Managing Director of the National Land Bank. Joint Author of Rural Reconstruction in Ireland, Co-operation in Ireland, Co-operation in Denmark, and Co-operation in Many Lands. Editor of Better Business.

MR S F SPENCER-SMITH, BA, headmaster of the Friends School, Lisburn.

MR B C WALLER, BA, Winner of the Filene Peace Prize, for the best Essay on "How to Restore European Peace through Co-operation". Author of Towards the Brotherhood of Nations, Ireland and the League of Nations, &c.

Introduction (J Sinclair Stevenson)

The "Copec" Conference on.the "Christian Order in Politics, Economies and Citizenship" held in Birmingham two years ago, and all the careful preparation made for it, gave a new impetus to the study of our social conditions in the light of the Incarnation, while the Conference on Life and Work held at Stockholm last summer and attended by representatives of more Christian Churches than had ever come together before, showed how widespread was the desire that the kingdom of God should be made something of.a reality even now on earth.

It was felt, however, that something was needed to apply the principles emphasised at Birmingham and Stockholm to the particular conditions that prevail in Ireland, and accordingly the Conference with which this little book deals was arranged by four groups of people in sympathy with each other and working with similar aims : The Irish Christian Fellowship, the Student Christian Movement, the Dublin Christian Citizenship Council and a similar committee in Belfast.

It was called "Towards a Better Ireland", T-A-B-I, and the nickname, Tabby, stuck. "Tabi", said the Irish Times, "suggests not so much heroic endeavours to change the whole organisation of society - a process that must necessarily occupy some considerable time - but rather the comforts. and amenities of home, symbolised by a tabby cat basking in. the warmth of a friendly hearth." And while there are many such homes in Ireland, as elsewhere, we knew that there were many, far too many, of our countrymen, both north and south. whose lives contained but little of comfort or well-being, or indeed of anything that provides the foundation on which a happy, full life can be built. What Tabi sought to do was to find out how we might better share our good things, material and spiritual, with others.

The Conference was held in Dublin, in,the well-appointed rooms in Eustace Street kindly placed at our disposal by the Society of Friends, and a great deal of its success was due to its comfortable and convenient housing. It began with a public meeting on Monday evening, the 4th Of January, and continued throughout the four following days, the last meeting being on Friday evening. The usual daily programme was as follows. We began at ten by a half-hour's devotional service, and this was followed by two periods of study. The first.was devoted to a lecture pure and simple, when we sat at the feet of the speakers. At the second, questions might be asked and answered. But general discussion was reserved for the afternoon meetings, when the selected speaker set the ball rolling and then guided the open conference which followed. The evening meetings were of a more general nature and were open to the public. In the afternoons opportunities were given for visiting various housing schemes, Messrs Jacob's Biscuit Factory and other objects of interest in the city.

The speakers were drawn from amongst those who had made a careful and practical study of the social and economic questions with which we were in the main concerned, and many of them had not merely studied, but got things done. They included Lord Monteagle and Mr Lionel Smith-Gordon, whose work for the co-operative movement is so well known, and Mr Nugent Harris, the apostle both in England an Ireland of village clubs. Mrs. Rudd from Co Louth and Mrs Hughes from Co Tipperary were each ready to share with us experiences gained by work in their own country neighbourhoods. Mr Kenneth Lindsay of Toynbee Hall and Canon Raven of Liverpool brought us their knowledge of what had been attempted in England. The Irish Church was represented in several of its branches by the Archbishop of Dublin and Dr Osborne, the Dean of Christ Church and Professor MeNeile, Canon Drury and Dr J 0 Murray, as well as by younger men like the Rev J T. Anderson and the Rev. A S Gailey, and by members from both the India and China mission fields. The Student Movement gave us Miss G Moss and Mr T Finnegan; the educational world Professor Davey, the Vice-Chancellor of. Queen's and Professor Henry from Belfast, Dr Gwenan Jones from South Wales and Miss Cunningham and the Rev. R M Gwynn of Trinity.

Art was represented by the President of the Royal Hibernian Academy and his wife; architecture by Mr G F Beckett; medicine by Professor Wigham; and the business world by people like Mr Charles Eason and Mr. Neil Watson, of Dublin, and Mr W M Clow of Portadown. We had experts like the Rev D H Hall to tell us about Housing, and Dr. Olive Anderson, Miss F Heron and Miss D Mellone about work for children.

Miss Haire-Forster and Mr J Smurthwaite described the difficulties connected with boys after they leave school. Senator Dorman, of Belfast, put before us the aims of Labour, and Senator Douglas of Dublin, to whose wise guidance the constitution of the Irish Free State owes so much, pointed out, in a very candid speech, the difficulties that stood in the way of union between the different sections of this little island.

Mr B C Waller, the winner of the Filene Peace Prize, gave us a masterly survey of where Ireland stood in the family of nations. Behind the scenes and directing all was the self-effacing efficient, resourceful and never ruffled secretary, Miss K H Huggard.

The Archbishop of Dublin, who presided at the first meeting, struck the keynote of the Conference when he said that what we wanted to do was to claim for Christ the whole of life and apply His rules to all our undertakings. The Christian church was vitally concerned with the conditions under which human souls had to live, and we must try to discover some way of putting an end to the contradiction between the Gospel preached in the churches and the state of things to be found in the slums. Professor Davey followed, with his paper on "Ireland in the Purposes of God", which will be found in this book.

Tuesday was given up to the consideration of questions connected with city life. Mr Kenneth Lindsay's Paper on the "Problems of an Industrial Civilisation", Miss F Heron's paper on "Recreation" and Canon Raven's address in the evening on the "Human Factor in the Industrial Community" are all to be found in these pages. Senator Dorman's passionate.indictment of what Mr Beckett justly described as the damnable conditions that existed in our midst will not soon be forgotten. He emphasised the fact that one of the important aims of 'the Labour Party was to secure the more vigorous administration of laws already in existence. The picture which he painted of the evils of over-crowding, with the vivid touches which came from first-hand experience, prepared us to listen with peculiar interest to the "Housing Parson", Rev D H Hall, who opened the afternoon's discussion on that subject.

Speaking from his experience, he said that he found many people who considered that housing was not a subject that should occupy the attention of Christians, in an obligatory sense, such as would be paid to definitely "religious" work. But Christianity, surely, applied to everything ; and he hoped that the result of this movement would be to establish the fact that the. problem of Housing was a matter of Christian obligation. Having referred to the houses that he had built, he said that a plot of ground had recently been acquired, on which it was proposed to build 74 new houses. Further capital would be required for that venture. The whole crux in building was capital, but many firms, owing to depression, were not able to give the help which might otherwise have been expected. He believed that the capital could be raised if proper housing schemes were put forward, not just scraps here and there.

The only way by which anything on a large scale could be done was by Public Utility Societies, and he described the working of his own, the St Barnabas' Public Utility Society. While they had no houses at present, cheaper than £1, yet they had no difficulty in filling these houses with people who had had to pay a similar rent for a single room. The artisan class, at the present time, could not get houses to live in. The Bradford Labour Party, among other English societies, had studied the St Barnabas' methods, and had come to the conclusion that there was no other society like it in the British Isles.

Speaking on Unemployment, on the same afternoon, Mr Kenneth Lindsay said the system of Unemployment Insurance, which had started in the iron and steel industries and spread to others, showed that unemployment was- one of the things against which it was possible to apply the principle of insurance. But when it came to curing unemployment, it would be foolish to say that a cure had been found for what had baffled the statesmen of every country in the world.

If industries were run on Christian principles, unemployment would be a very minor evil, which could be insured against, and be a small burden on the community. To relieve unemployment there should be a national Housing service in every country, mobility of labour from one place to another and mobility of capital. In most cases, people who came under the Poor Law were those who had received no education between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

It was actually far cheaper to spend, the necessary money on a child's education than to keep people in Poor Law institutions and in prisons, which frequently proved to be the alternative. There is the chance in Ireland now, he said, of planning a national policy for the country in these matters. In a national plan, it is possible to anticipate and prepare for black days, as was done in Wisconsin, where many social experiments had been carried on. Any industry should be organised in such a way as to serve the needs of the people; not in order to secure the highest profits, but to give regular employment and to met a national need. :If industries were so organised, unemployment would be on a very small scale and could be dealt with in a reasonable way.

Wednesday's discussions centred round rural life and were by general consent the most interesting of the Conference. They, too, will be found in the book.

On both these days, speaker after speaker seemed to indicate that the main obstacle to the improvement of our conditions in town and country alike lay in the deficiencies of our education and so prepared the way for the papers on Education which occupied Thursday. Dr. Gwenan Jones and Mr Spencer Smith dealt with the child in and out of school, respectively, while Miss Cunningham showed what could be done with those whose schooldays were over. Their papers will be found here.

In the afternoon, Mr J S Smurthwaite, Welfare Manager in Messrs Jacob's Factory, speaking on Continuation Classes, said that, when a. child left school at 14 years of age, it required further education, either during factory hours or in evening classes.

His firm had adopted the provisions of the Fisher Education Act of 1918, which was in voluntary operation in a great many firms in England, and employees between 14 and 16 years of age received five hours' instruction in the week during factory hours, although this entailed the employment of 10% more boys and girls than would otherwise be needed. They had found that it made their employees more efficient and interested in their work.

In a discussion on "Educational Ideals", Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson reminded us that the aim of all our education should be to form the greatest of all co-operative societies, that of the father and mother in the home. It was education which enabled us to face facts at their worst and then try to find the remedy, and which trained the mental and moral muscles to hold on for that extra five minutes that so often mode the difference between success and failure.

The fine address on "Education and Life", given in the evening by the Vice-Chancellor of Queen's, will be found in these pages.

Mr B C Waller's paper, read on the last day of the Conference, put new heart into us all, and made its feel that Ireland, small as she was, had nevertheless a place all her own in the sisterhood of nations.

The discussion of the relations between Ireland north and south had lost whatever sting it might otherwise have had, through the recent settlement of the Boundary dispute. The chairman, Canon Drury, emphasised the fact that neither the twenty-six nor the six counties could claim to be Ireland; each section needed the other, and no one could be permanently content with a divided Ireland; but we must face facts in a tolerant spirit and realise that unity could only come through steady co-operation between all sections of the country.

Senator Douglas similarly called on us to face facts of which the partition of our country was one. A summary of the discussion at this meeting is given later.

The Conference closed with the paper on "Citizenship and Responsibility" which Professor Henry has contributed to the book, and one by the Rev J O Murray, DD, of Beaupark, Co Meath, in which he showed from the analogy of dominions like Canada that intense national feeling and desire for an independent national life were not inconsistent with co-equal membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Even partition need be no bar to real unity and as good citizens, we must be good Irish men and women too.

Such is a brief outline of what was said and done at the Conference from day to day; but no sketch the proceedings, and not even a careful study of the papers which follow, can give those who were not actually present a sufficiently vivid idea of the stimulating and encouraging tone that pervaded the meetings.

It was not that we were trying to shut our eyes to facts - on the contrary, the desire of all the members appeared to be for facts and more facts, and some of these facts were depressing enough; the conditions of life in our great cities, the lack of interest and mental stimulus in the country, the hesitation to adopt in. practice that co-operation of various sorts which all who knew the circumstances agreed was vital for any betterment, the poverty of our education and the widespread blindness to the urgency of that and many other matters of moment.

But, nevertheless, the Conference was brimming over with hope. With Professor Davey, we felt assured that God had some great purpose in His kingdom for Ireland, and as, in the days that followed, we realised more fully how far our country yet was from fulfilling God's plan for her as a nation, it was something to have the conviction burnt in on our minds that He had need of Ireland as Ireland has need of Him.

To many a lonely soul, continually vexed and distressed by the monotonous reiteration of our country's shortcomings, it was like the sun shining out from black clouds to see and hear, and meet with so many who not only loved, but believed in their country, and noted her failings and necessities, only to determine to set them right. And this conviction was but strengthened by speakers who came to us from across the water. "I would give anything", said one of them, "to belong, like you, to a small Country".

After all, it is in the small country that the individual can pull most weight. And another poured contempt on those who, with their future before them, regarded Ireland as a place devoid of opportunity. Opportunities for making money - yes, perhaps, but not opportunities for service. "You ought to go down on your knees", said this speaker, "and thank God for allowing you to live in Ireland at a time like this".

Not that it was only in Ireland that Ireland could be served. More than one speaker reminded us that, from the days of St. Columba till now, Ireland's great glory has been, that she has spread abroad the good news of God's kingdom to the ends of the earth; and many an Irish missionary, from that day to this, can bear testimony to the inspiration of knowing that, in trying to serve God and His kingdom in a distant mission field, he was serving Ireland too.

A Conference like ours is necessarily a thing of words; it will have been held in vain, if the words do not issue in honest, untiring and effective work; and the question arises, as the Archbishop of Dublin has since written of it: how is what has been put into the public mind to be woven into some texture more substantial than that of our dreams? "Tabi", it has been said, must not be content to lie down comfortably by the fire. She must rather seek to emulate Felix, and keep on walking".

One of the most important tasks before us, it was felt, is to obtain more knowledge and more complete facts. There are several societies (the names of which are to be found on the last page) which need help from men and women of good will and into which "Tabi" might well throw her energies.

But the Conference did not attempt to set any fresh work on foot, or to establish a new organisation. What it urges on all who were able to attend it, and on those less fortunate lovers of Ireland who can only learn of it from this little book, is to keep the "Tabi" spirit alive, the spirit that believes in Ireland in the dark days as in the. light, the spirit that will strive ever to learn more and will face the worst facts, not that it may criticise, but that it may lend a hand; the spirit that is more ready to serve than to lead or to advise, that is always ready to do the little common things as well as to attempt the greater, that is always on the look out to be friendly and of use, that hates snobbery and reverences the common people, that is thick-skinned to criticism, but very impressionable to human need, that has courage and self-sacrificing love, faith and hope enough to determine that, whether with the help of many or few, it will pray and work and struggle that God's kingdom may come and His will be done, as in Heaven-so in Ireland.

This ended the introductory overview by Sinclair Stevenson. I add the following short notes on the contributions of the two speakers when we have met in the JJ context previously, the first in JJ's Oxford period, as a left-wing voice in the Oxford Union, the second in the Ulster Liberal context, in support of Home Rule, vainly lobbying Asquith after the Ballymoney Rally, and along with JJ attempting unsuccessfully to pre-empt the Tory-Orange coup-d'etat which centred on the Larne gun-running in April 1914.

Lionel Smith-Gordon was critical of the way that 90% of Irish farmers kept no books, and had no idea of how their revenue related to production costs. He called for a business-like co-operative approach to the marketing of produce and the purchasing of inputs; he should not have to sell wholesale and but retail. He drew heavily on US co-operative experience.

Professor RM Henry, on the theme of 'citizenship and responsibility', was critical of the Australian approach to citizen apathy (fining non-voters), urging an organised approach to lobbying on issues in the common interest. He was critical of the current approached to education both ion the Free State and Northern Ireland, and suggested this as an area for citizen concern.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999