I have been able to track down local press reports of 3 Barrington Lectures in 1932: Ballybay April 5, Bray Technical School on Jun 4, and Navan on October 8.

1932

JJ was introduced by the Rector, EC Bigger as being from Dundalk, where he was then living; the auspices were the Co Monaghan Library. The paper then reproduced the text of the lecture in full, taking up 2/3 of a broadsheet page.

Evidence for the existence of a world crisis: this was presented in terms of unemployment in the industrial countries, shrinkage in world trade, collapse in wheat prices; wholesale prices in Britain were 62% of the 1924 level.

Comparative absence of such evidence in Ireland: export increase 1925 to 1930, no unmarketable surplus of our main products, balanced budget, relatively light national debt, only £5 per head compared to £200 in Britain. Ireland is an island of comparative calm in a world storm.

Causes of current world state: JJ argued that the production in the Americas which had expanded as a result of the demand during the war and its aftermath had led to substantial productivity increases, but the uptake of this in the post-war situation had been impeded by the workings of the financial system, which had concentrated on getting reparations out of Germany. But international debts are really paid by the transfer of goods and services. The attempts of Europeans to pay what they owed to America by exporting were however blocked by the Americas putting up tariffs, and by blocking the flow of capital to Europe. The gold standard was abandoned in 1931; there was total financial panic, short-term loans were called in. The net effect on the Irish farmer was to enable him to import feeding-stuff at very low cost.

The Land Annuities Question: JJ made the case for an amicable settlement, exchanging their £70M capital value for a fraction of the British investments held by our citizens abroad, valued at an estimated £280M.

A vote of thanks was proposed by Mr Neary the Manager of the Hibernian Bank in Ballybay. There is unfortunately no record of the discussion, or whether any took place. One can see here the thinking behind the Nemesis of Economic Nationalism, and a rational persistence of pre-War Liberal Free Trade philosophy.

The Bray meeting in the Technical School was presided over by the Rev Chancellor GD Scott MA. (I suspect that it may have been JJ's policy to use the Barrington occasions where possible to encourage the local Protestant clergy to participate in public life, or perhaps to home in on locations where this was the norm, in accordance with his long-established all-Ireland inclusive political view.)

This lecture covered much of the same ground as the earlier Ballybay lecture, but it was also influenced by the Budget of the new Fianna Fail Finance Minister Sean McEntee, which he attacked, claiming that the wholesale imposition of tariffs was counter-productive, to the extent that the international trade destroyed would be likely to exceed the domestic trade created, and that while jobs might be created in some protected industries, they would be offset by jobs lost elsewhere. He linked the tariff policy with that of the Tory Joe Chamberlain. He predicted that the protected small-scale industries would be inefficient, and that this would remain a permanent characteristic.

He also attacked the increased income tax, on classic Liberal grounds: the destruction of motivation and credit among those who might create employment etc, but paradoxically goes on to say '...if we were in a position to create some planned economy relying on other higher motives, there might be something to be said for the gradual evolution of capitalistic society in the direction of that other constructive ideal, but there is no evidence of any such constructive ideal, and the only result of destroying capitalism at home will not even be the intelligible social order of Bolshevistic Russia, but pure and unadulterated economic chaos..'. In other words, if you want to destroy capitalism by high taxation and tariffs in a situation of general world economic depression, it would be better to have an alternative ready.

There was some discussion reported. PJ Meghen, BE, BSc, Commissioner, proposed the vote of thanks expressed disagreement, worrying about dumping and unemployment, and defended public works and increased payments to the unemployed. Sean Mac Cathmhaoil, Town Clerk, seconded, pointing out the disparity between the price received by the producer and that paid by the consumer.

There was then a lengthy contribution from Roddy Connolly, James Connolly's son, then the Secretary of the Bray Trades Council(1), who said he wanted to see the script and study it in detail, but ventured to question the divorce of economics from politics, and commended JJ for showing the connection between the two, instancing the influence of the Versailles Treaty, a political act, on the current world economic crisis. Protectionism was a symptom of the decline of capitalism, and the withdrawal of Russian from the world capitalist market was hastening this decline. He suggested that Mr McEntee's budget would have been relevant in the 1880s, at the beginning of the period of industrial expansion, and he went along with Mr Meghen who held that if every other country is putting up tariffs why should not we.

JJ in his reply to the discussion was delighted at having provoked controversy. He developed the Town Clerk's point about wasteful distribution (having written a paper on this in 1927). He defended his basic Free Trade position, and re-iterated his opposition to wholesale imposition of tariffs, but admitted that a few selective tariffs might in some circumstances be useful. On Russia he urged development of trade; Russia needed machinery which Western Europe could provide. Capitalist society was very sick and only intelligent international co-operation could restore it to health.

The Navan lecture, reported under the label 'masterly' in the Meath Chronicle on October 8 1932, took place in the CYMS hall, and was under the auspices of the Meath Vocational Education Committee. John Quinn, Chairman of the Meath County Council presided. The report was headed 'Speed the Plough to Feed the Cow'.

JJ placed Irish agriculture in a world context, giving European and transatlantic comparisons. He warned that increasing tillage in itself would not increase employment, the trend in the US and in the south-east of England being into large fields and combine harvesters, which were efficient and capital-intensive. He warned of the negative effects of destroying hedgerows, getting rid of the birds that ate the insects, giving an insightful pre-view of the message of Rachel Carson, author in the 1950s of the seminal 'Silent Spring', and of current Green concerns.

He did however encourage appropriate tillage in support of expanded livestock production, giving vastly improved access to winter feed, and thereby enabling winter dairying to be developed. (He expanded on this aspect in his 1932 SSISI paper, summarised elsewhere.)

The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr TL Forde and seconded by Rev Bro Kelly. There was reference to the audience being somewhat scanty. The report however is complete and no doubt many Meath livestock producers read it, and a few may even have picked up the message that tillage and beef can be complementary and are not necessarily competitive.

It can be concluded from this sample of JJ's Barrington activity that the content of his lectures in the 20s and 30s was broadly based on the content of his books and published papers in the period, and that he regarded the conveying to the public at large of the results of his academic researches as an important social responsibility.

Note

1. I am indebted to Eugene McCartan of Connolly Books, Dublin, for some background on Roddy Connolly. He had attended the first Congress of Saor Eire in 1931, and was associated with the Republican Congress in 1934. See also Sean Cronin's book on Frank Ryan.

1935

Other Polemical Papers

JJ also attempted to bring Irish issues to the attention of the 'lay opinion-leader' public in Britain, and to this end he published in the February 1938 issue of Fortnightly Review (no 854, new series, published monthly despite its title) a paper on 'The Plight of Irish Agriculture'. This was a re-packaging of his then current Irish polemical output for the benefit of readers in Britain, with a view to helping to bring to an end the Economic War. He also published in the Liberal 'Nineteenth Century and After' and in the Manchester School journal.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999