1. Horace Plunkett took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of cooperation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator.
Horace Plunkett opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum.
Horace Plunkett got farmers to join to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders.
Horace Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through cooperation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living".
Cooperatives and Horace Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.
Horace Plunkett was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland.
Horace Plunkett was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced.
Horace Plunkett successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895.
Early in his career, Horace Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition.
Horace Plunkett lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote.
In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Horace Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries.
Horace Plunkett was appointed vice-president, a position of de facto leadership.
Horace Plunkett guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years.
Horace Plunkett was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Queenstown, on the personal initiative of the King.
Horace Plunkett put forth the view that economics was more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy.
The government gave way, and although Horace Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI.
In 1908 public appreciation of Horace Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Horace Plunkett House.
The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland, and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett.
Horace Plunkett spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail.
Much of Horace Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States.
Horace Plunkett was himself sanguine, and worked at his task with singular devotion until May 1918; but the absence of Sinn Fein from the gathering, and the impossibility of reconciling the views of the Ulstermen and the southern Unionists, prevented the adoption of any report with unanimity.
Horace Plunkett may have lost what would have been a historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase.
Until 1922 Horace Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic.
In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Horace Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Eireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state.
Horace Plunkett wrote of his sorrow that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed.
Horace Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives.
Horace Plunkett was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs.
Horace Plunkett worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years.
Horace Plunkett was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end.
Horace Plunkett was close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin.
Horace Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet, where his gravestone survives.
Multiple studies of the life and work of Horace Plunkett have been published, including books:.