In recent times policy on social and rural poverty has experienced a shift. Policy had previously concentrated on fiscal distribution to society’s underprivileged. However over time policy makers and academics began to realise that social poverty was the result of an underdeveloped civil society where the proletariat had become increasingly disengaged from the public sphere. As a result policy began to look at ways of tackling social exclusion and incorporating the proletariat into the decision making process. This paper gives a description of that process and Irelands experience of tackling social exclusion. It is suggested in this paper that the proposed research may highlight some of the current policy deficits and challenges prevalent in rural development. This is because it engages with a small rural populace and examines the strategies they employ in sustaining the rural and the frustrations they have experienced in their attempts of bottom-up development.