ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of community in Irish rural development and particularly attempts to assess the frustrations experienced by bottom-up development initiatives. The Developing the West Together group, formed in 1991, will be used as a vehicle to structure these "frustrations" and provide a useful insight to the barriers experienced by community development groups in rural Ireland. In Ireland, the Church also plays an important part in this relationship. Overall, while there has been a lack of any coherent strategy, the role of the Church in development, and specifically, the role of key individuals, has been significant. The reconfiguration of the affinity between state, community and citizen forms a complex relationship between different actors and networks. Empowering communities to have greater influence on their own development is based on a number of processes of social 'animation', 'partnership', 'participation' and 'capacity building'.
