Remarks by John Tyrrell, Director General ICOS, at the unveiling of a plaque at Mountcorbitt House, Churchtown, Co Cork on 4 July 2009

Robert Andrew Anderson 1860 -1942

Anderson was one of the founders and first organizers of the co-op movement in Ireland. He was the first person to work with Plunkett on his mission of organizing farmers and promoting the benefits of the co-operative form of business.

ICOS salutes the initiative of Noel Linehan, and his colleagues and motivated to this by Billy Nagle.

Robert Anderson was born at Mt Corbett on 26th June 1860 to a Scots father and a Canadian mother. He was one of 2 sons and a daughter.

His father Andrew Anderson was one of the few outsiders to avail of the Encumbered Estates Act 1849 where it was hoped that benevolent landlords would replace the more profligate absentee incumbents and establish a more amicable landlord/tenant relationship than existed in Britain.

Anderson was a staunch Unionist, of the Protestant tradition

In 1889 Anderson was working as a sub agent for Lord Castletown in Doneraile (Bernard Edward Barnaby (Barney) Fitzpatrick).

Barney Fitzpatrick was a friend of Plunkett who had collaborated with him in a number of land and cattle ranching ventures in Wyoming during the 1890's. Plunkett had spent the summer each year during the 1880's in the US, because of his poor health, where it was felt that the climate there would help his condition, and the fact that several members of his family had died from TB.

Plunkett returned from US, and turned his attention to state of Agriculture in Ireland and the potential of organizing farmers into co-ops.

Plunkett saw successful retail co-ops in England. From his 10 years travelling to the USA he saw that the US had the potential to swamp the European market with grains and agricultural products because of the vast land area which .was available.

Need to organize farmers to improve their standard of living - it was a means to an end - better business would lift the overall quality of living standards in rural areas.

Barney Fitzpatrick advised Plunkett that he had a ''good man'' working for him who could ably assist Plunkett in spreading the message of co-operation.

A meeting was arranged and Plunkett spent a good time trying to educate Anderson on the attractions of co-operation - and why he should give up his secure, well paid job to work with Plunkett in promoting the co-operative message.

As Anderson relates 'Most of what he said to me was Greek to me, and I was honest enough to say so. Plunkett saw how raw and ignorant of the world I was, but it only made him more patient with me and the more earnest in expounding his strange doctrine'. In the end, Anderson agreed to work with Plunkett.

While he was ignorant of co-operation, he had organizational experience, having been connected with an unsuccessful attempt to establish a proprietary creamery in Castletown in 1884.

With Anderson on board, one of Plunketts first ventures was the establishment of a co-op shop in Doneraile. It was stocked with goods mainly obtained from the CWS. The CWS also supplied a manager - a gentleman who was to become the object of considerable local amusement.

'A spick and span individual' said Anderson, 'but quite inefficient, because he did not understand the people, nor they him'.

The store went through its ups and downs and the co-op aspect gradually disappeared and it became a proprietary concern. But, there had been benefits. Local traders had responded to the competition and upped their game. They reduced their exorbitant prices, and it did create a co-op climate which later led to the first agricultural bank in 1894.

Anderson spoke of Plunkett in the following terms
'A great admiration, almost amounting to awe, was inspired in me for this frail but fearless and outspoken man, who habitually lived an abstemious, almost ascetic life, drinking but rarely and then sparingly, smoking scarcely at all. He was horrified at the way I could drink whiskeys and soda and he rather frowned on my beloved pipe. All the same, I think he gave me more of his confidence, than he gave to any other man and trusted me implicitly. I think that I can say truthfully, that I never let him down once'.

In 1889, WL Stokes - a representative of the CWS in Limerick - and Robert Gibson, a butter merchant, had succeeded, under the guidance of the Co-operative Union in establishing Ireland's first co-operative creamery in Drumcollogher.

Plunkett and Anderson traversed the country - concentrating initially on the Golden Vale addressing meeting after meeting, preaching the ideals of combined effort. Plunkett found it difficult to strike a rapport with the rural farmers, being Anglo-Irish, Protestant, a Landlord possessing an upper class accent.

He was a poor public speaker, long winded and hesitant in delivery. Bishop O'Dwyer of Limerick once said to Plunkett ''the only trouble with you us you won't use the wrong word when you can't remember the right one.''

Plunkett reportedly held over 40 meetings before he succeeded in organizing his first co-operative. This breakthrough was at Ballyhahill, near Foynes in 1891.

Anderson travelled the length and breath of the country by train, sidecar, horseback and bicycle, holding meetings in all kinds of buildings and addressing all manner of suspicious and sometimes hostile audiences.

He recalls that in one month, he slept in 30 different places, sometimes on the seat of a night train, with no covering, but his freezing overcoat, and no pillow, but his wallet of papers.

He was attacked by the Skibbereen Eagle, whose editor described Plunkett as 'a monster in human form' and called on him to 'cease his hellish work'.

A more serious threat was posed by the coopers of Milltown Malbay, Co Clare, whose livelihood of making butter firkins was threatened, and who had their drawing knives ready to 'cut the livers' out of Anderson had he not escaped in the guardsvan of the West Clare Railway.

Anderson's commitment was shown when the position of Secretary of the newly formed Department of Agriculture was available. It was in Plunkett gift as Vice President to make the appointment. Anderson had the attributes. He was aware of the sensitivities between emerging nationalists and unionists. Anderson did not press his claim, and gave up an opportunity of a well paid pensionable position, to stick with the thankless and poorly rewarded task of promoting and organizing agricultural co-operation in Ireland.

This action won him the high regard and affection of his fellow co-operators. A special collection raised a handsome sum which was given to Anderson in recognition of his gesture. He also received a magnificent, silver bound bog-oak covered book, artistically inscribed with the compliments and list of subscribing societies.

The First World War was a period of intense sadness for Anderson. His 23 year old son, Alan, was killed in the War at Le Pelly, near Lille 2 weeks before Christmas 1914.

Shortly afterwards, his second son, Philip, was badly wounded and died on the Western Front in February 1915. Anderson himself was a member of the Home Guard Regiment of Veterans. He sustained a flesh wound in one of the first encounters of the Easter Rebellion when his contingent marched on Mount Street Bridge.

He had first been appointed as Secretary - CEO - of IAOS and continued this role until he retired through ill-health in September 1921.

In the post war slump, many co-ops got into difficulties. Among them was the IAWS. In 1922, (at 62 years of age) Anderson was asked to step into the breach to rescue the IAWS and was seconded there as Managing Director for a 5 year period. He succeeded in nursing it back to financial health. 'It was not' he said 'a pleasant experience, nor one that I shall easily forget, for I had to be perfectly ruthless and relentless'.

He was elected President of IAOS in 1933, ten months after Plunkett's death, and remained in that role until his own death on 25th December 1942.

We are also living in challenging times, and we can draw inspiration from the persistence and vision of Anderson and Plunkett who had to overcome enormous difficulties and active opposition to their work. This recognition of R A Anderson is important because without him and Plunkett, we might not have the important agri food co-operative industry in Ireland today.

Our agri-food co-ops are a vital part of the Irish economy. They are indigenous businesses, which generate enormous economic activity, and contribute hugely to our net exports.

Congratulations to the organizers and hosts of this event, and thank you for your kind invitation to this unveiling.