The Co-op was affiliated with the English Co-operative Wholesale Society from whom exports were obtained from the 1920s until the Dockyard closed in 1950. Members paid one pound to join the Co-operative Society and were eligible to participate in the dividends on profits of the Society. Bermuda Monetary Authority, Coins of Bermuda 16161996, 1997.A co-operative is a legal entity owned and democratically controlled by its members. Members often have a close association with the enterprise as producers or consumers of its products or services, or as its employees. Wikipedia entry on ‘Co-operative'.In the later 18th century, a concept of social co-operation in modern society arose in Scotland, when the ‘Fenwick Weavers' Society' was established to sell ‘discounted oatmeal' to workers in the area. Its services were later expanded to help its members with educational, financial and even emigration matters.About the time construction began for the Bermuda Dockyard for the Royal Navy in western North Atlantic waters, folk from the other part of the British Isles that the Romans forbade to conquer, Wales, continued the ‘co-operative' idea, under Robert Owen, a social reformer and a ‘pioneer of the co-operative movement'. A generation later in 1844, another group of weavers set up the ‘Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers' as what may be considered the ‘first successful co-operative enterprise', and one which laid down the ‘Rochdale Principles', which affected other such later exercises in group co-operation. By the 1850s, over a thousand co-ops were operating in the United Kingdom.In Bermuda, ‘Friendly Societies' in the same co-operative ilk were established after Emancipation in 1834 and the legacy of that movement can be viewed at the Bermuda Heritage Museum in St George's. Early in the 1900s, the Ireland Island Co-operative Society was formed to serve people of the Dockyard and later, persons from nearby Somerset Island, whence many of the day-workers at the naval base came. Perhaps the last of the local co-ops was the ‘Bermuda Workers Co-Operative Society', which was an enterprise of the Bermuda Industrial Union and which operated into the 1980s.The Ireland Island Co-operative Society came into existence in the early 1900s and took its name from the northernmost island in the chain of such lands that extends north from Somerset Bridge, namely, Somerset, Watford, Boaz and Ireland Islands. Ireland Island was divided into south and north by Cockburn Cut, which was created by cutting a channel across the island to connect the waters of Grassy Bay to the east and the reefs and ultimately the open ocean to the west. It was near the Cockburn Cut Bridge that the main store of the Ireland Island Co-operative Society (now demolished) could be found until its closure in 1951, a victim of the downsizing of the Bermuda Dockyard after the Second World War.Mr. T. Woodward, one-time president of the Ireland Island Co-operative Society, has left a short written account of the stores and activities of the Society, information from which has been incorporated into the following story.The main store was on Ireland Island South, opposite and west of Victoria Row; one of its last managers was Eugene Doughty, whose descendants are a part of the Bermuda community today. The foremost establishment was the Grocery Store, which sold such items, as well as meat, for it had a large Kelvinator cold storage room, to keep such a perishable fresh. A small stand, the Confectionary, supplied candies and chocolates, biscuits and ice cream. Next to the main store was the Office, where all of the records of the Members were kept and where the Committee met monthly to discuss affairs of state of the Society.The Clothing and General Haberdashery was to be found on the lower, or south road of Ireland Island South near the Spar Yard and was the place were all items of clothing, cotton and material, silks, ribbons and thread could be acquired in those days when much making and repairs of apparel took place in the home. Also near the Spar Yard was the Barber's Shop, which was a portable building brought from England in the 1930s; intended entirely for men, a ‘portable' barber by the name of Mr. Mountcastle, was also imported. Perhaps from the cutting shop, the men would head for the Beer Store, which was classed as a Public House, but it had both public and private bars.To the immediate south of Ireland Island, a grocery store was opened on Boaz Island in the 1930s, for residents there, and also presumably for those living on Watford Island. ‘Owing to the retirement of Mr. Harry Augirs, who ran a herd of cows on Boaz Island, the Society decided to buy his stock and take over his premises, which consisted of Residence & Barn and cow sheds. It was found necessary to conform to local health laws and so a sterilizing plant was built so as to pasteurise the milk before distribution.'Mr. Woodward went on to write: ‘As we were operating before the advent of motor vehicles, our transport was horse drawn. The Society had two horses, a grey stallion named Bill and a brown mare named Min. These were well looked after by their drivers and they employed every Sunday morning cleaning the Stable and grooming the horses' muck to the delight of the local children. These stables were situated at the rear of Clock Block on Boaz Island. The drivers' names were Messrs. Bassett & Evans, both residing in Somerset. At the closure of the Dockyard, the Society was closed and all members left were paid out their shares on value of stock remaining.'The Ireland Island Co-operative Society also gave out tokens to customers upon the purchase of goods and those could be turned in every six months for a dividend. The denominations of the IICS tokens were one and two shillings and then six lower values of 3d, 5d, 7d, 8d, 10d, and 11 pennies. The tokens are now items for coin collectors and if sold would probably realize a dividend far in excess of their face value and the original intention of the cooperative membership and management of the Ireland Island Co-operative Society.Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.