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Show Irish Ireland. (From the Dublin Evening Mail.) This is Ireland. It is well to ke,ep the remarkable fact in mind, for it explains many seeming mysteries. It explains, among other things, why it is that there are some hundreds of thousands of our people not yet awake to the fact that a revolution one of the greatest in a century has been surging around them without their seeing it. and thundering in their ears without their hearing it, for some years a revolution revo-lution that has already toppled from their pedestals many of the plaster-of-paris traditions to which unthinking people were used to bend the knee, and broken them in very small pieces, setting set-ting up in their stead ideals that are at once newer and older, and truer and bolder, than those displaced; ideals which are the true expression of the national mind, and, we hope, likely to be the lasting expression of it. There are some thousands of complaisant com-plaisant people who read their Evening Mail religiously and thank God that thev are not as those Gaelic league fad. dists, of whom they have heard distant rumors, who will be as shocked as they will be incredulous when I hazard the prophecy (which I do with easy confidence) con-fidence) that eve two summers shall have faded beyond the Broadstone a significant proportion of them will have found themselves stealing into the Gaelic league bookshop, 'twixt daylight and dark, and asking in a whisper for a -Primhleabhar" (infant primer), and, will have found themselves afterward, in the secrecy of their own chambers striving sore with the seventeen stout and sturdy "buachaillini" that form the phalanx known as the Irish alphabet., Hundreds who probably smile at this "ill ! assure them, ere long be doing as I say. The postal officials a few years ago smiled this smile-smiled it with that eay contempt which only one's very well paid servant can affect. The shopkeepers shop-keepers next affected the smile, the schools tried the same, the press, the batiks, and the railways; but the smile 'soon changed to a frown, the frown to a growl, and the growl gave way to obsequious acquiescence. In fact, every public institution in the country every j institution that is usually supposed to be for the country's good, ran out in turn with its old reliable pitchfork, bent upon setting back the Gaelic tide. The tide, unreasonably enough, not only refused re-fused to recede, but bowled oveiv one by one. and carried with it its . little-opponents. Irish is now established in the great majority of our leading schools and is recognized by the post-office. post-office. Bank checks are drawn and signed in Irish; the railways will, hardly hard-ly any more refuse to acknowledge' it; the shopkeepers court it; and the greater great-er poltion of the press throughout the country is hurrying to cater" for the Irish Revival, and, though the Evening Mail has not just yet struck its -.flag (though it soon shall), the ominous whisper is going around that recently, in dead of night, the Irish Times smuggled smug-gled a font of Gaelic type into its cellars. cel-lars. & Ireland is surely and quickly on the I way to becoming a bilinguist- nation. Twelve years hence it will not be an easy matter for any aspirant to secure a leading position in commercial or professional life, or to enter any public office without a knowledge of his country's coun-try's language; and reporters may even prepare themselves for the entertaining spectacle of future lords lieutenant coming down the gang plank at Kingstown, Kings-town, absorbed in their Irish primer, and wrestling with the profound mysteries mys-teries of "cu og agus bo." For the convincing of incredulous ones I should like to set down a few dry facts here. The Gaelic league was established more than nine years ago for the revival of the Irish language as a spoken tongue. Its progress, while sure and steady, was in no way phenomenal phe-nomenal for the first half-dozen years of its existence, but it has, during the past three years, advanced by leaps and bounds, and the advance continues by geometrical rather than arithmetical progression. Two years ago there were in Ireland hardly 200 affiliated branches of the league; in this present year there are rather more than 500.- Two years ago the Irislv language was. taught hi 113 national schools; at present it is taught in about 3.000, and twelve months hence there is every reason to believe that this latter number will-have will-have been doubled. A few years since the Irish language was not taught in any of the teachers,' training colleges; now it is taught in five. In how many intermediate schools it is taught it is impossible for me to say, but I can state with certainty that the number is1 very great. Two years since the receipts re-ceipts of the Gaelic league were reckoned reck-oned by hundreds of pounds; last year they were reckoned by thousands (roughly speaking. I believe 5,300). And it is calculated that the end of the; current financial year will show receipts re-ceipts amounting to 10,000. A couple of years since there was one organizer endeavoring to awake a lethargic country coun-try in the interests of the league; now there are eight, and in the course of a few months the number will be half a score. . During the year ending March 31 last there were issued by the Gaelic league alone 213,000 books in Irish, and 40,000 propagandist pamphlets. Of this great total' of a quarter of a million, 138,000 were O'Grovvney text books. The remainder consisted of books of Irish poems, Irish folklore, biography, and Irish songs and music. It must be borne in mind. too. that, over and above this grand total issued by the Gaelic league, there were many thousand books, either in Irish or dealing directly direct-ly with the Irish movement, put out by other publishing firms. Besides the Irish columns regularly printed by many daily, tri-weekly, biweekly, bi-weekly, and weekly and monthly papers and publications throughout the country, coun-try, there are published, the weekly organ of the Gaelic league, "AnClaid-heamh "AnClaid-heamh Soluis (two-thirds or three-fourths three-fourths of which is i:i Irish), and its monthly magazine, "Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge" (entirely in Irish), and also a few other monthlies, entirely, or almost al-most entirely, in Irish. During the last few years a number of Irish plays have been written (by Dr. Douglas Hyde, the president of the Gaelic league, and others), oth-ers), and successfully performed before large and enthusiastic audiences. Very " ; (Continued on Page 4.) IRISH IRELAND. (Continued on Page 11.) many concerts have been given at which the songs were entirely in Irish, and of the concerts held throughout the 1 country during this last season the pro- ! 'portion at which a nuniber of Gaelic songs were not sung was small. This j winter also there are but few towns or villages in Ireland in which Gaelic classes do not flourish. The commissioners of national education edu-cation have been forced to concede new privileges in favor of the teaching of Irish in the schools. If taught as an extra subject, the substantial fee of 10s. per head for all pupils to whom it is taught effectively is awarded. They have conceded that it may be taught as an ordinary subject in all schools; and the natural result of these concessions is that a great number of managers have already established the teaching of it in the schools under their patronage; patron-age; and a still greater number will, j within very short time (as. soon as j their teachers are prepared to undertake under-take it have established it. There are in Ireland, accordingTo the j last census, nearly 700,000 people who are Irish speaking, and of these about 40,000 speak Irish only. Among this Gaelic-speaking population, by far the greater portion of which is found along the western and southern seaboards, the organizers are at work, preaching the gospel of the Gaelic league, and pressing home its principles; so that, while the English-speaking portion of our country is at work recovering a literal knowledge of their language, the language in its idiomatic, vigorous, spoken form, as it still exists, may not be allowed to disappear from among the mountains where it has so persistently persist-ently clung. Because this is the twentieth century (I had almost said although this is the twentieth century), I know there are many people who would ask what is the use of reviving the Irish language. To some of these people it would be impossible an give an answer, because they do not realize the meaning of the word "use," and so soulless are they that they consider nothing is useful un- i less they can eat it, wear it, look at it, strike it with a brassy, or make it ring upon a counter. So although I might ( I shall not trouble striving to answer i such people at any length; I would only j say: The Gaelic league is not, as many i seem to think, entirely without its practical prac-tical side, for, owing to its powerful influence in-fluence upon the youth of the country, fresh impetus has been given to all branches of Irish industry with one bare exception. The workers in the Gaelic cause advocated both by example exam-ple and precept the patronizing of all things Irish, in preference to imported materials. They advocate, and have advocated, ad-vocated, this with a success that is highly pleasing. They have also preached most effectively against treating, treat-ing, drinking, gambling, against immorality im-morality and vulgarity in the theatre and music hall and concert hall, and against inanity and vulgarity in literature. liter-ature. 2v But people who, like you, my reader, realize that man. is something more than an animal, recognize that we have to consider many hings other thau what we shall eat and wherewith we shall be clothed, and that such other things have their use in the Divine plan a use rather greater, as it is loftier, than the use which the mere materialist material-ist understands. Any language is a precious inheritance; it is the golden deposit that the streams of thought have, through ages, been carrying down to a people from the mountains of the past; and leading European philologists of the present day as well as of days past have agreed in acknowledging that, in the case of the Celtic race, the language which is their inheritance is many times richer than the language of most other peoples of our time. If, j wantonly, we cast away our inheritance, inher-itance, or if, vilely, we barter it for a mess of pottage, we would richly merit eternal obliquy. We who subscribe to the doctrines of the Gaelic league believe, too, in the aphorism, "No language, no nation." WTe naturally wish to preserve our national na-tional distinctiveness r and I fancy that, in this, we would have 'the support of not merely those who think with us politically, but likewise of all right-thinking, right-thinking, sincere people, who, while hotly opposed to. us in many .things, still maintain that they are Irish and ' that they wish to remain Irish. Gradually, Grad-ually, but truly, we were losing this national na-tional distinctiveness. We were losing los-ing it in about the same ratio in which the census, decade after decade, showed that our language was slipping from us. Very soon, had not the Gaelic league sprung up, our national characteristics charac-teristics would have been either completely com-pletely or mostly submerged, and we would have been respectable English-speaking English-speaking Britons inhabiting an island called Ireland. I wonder how many amongst you who are 'English and im- : perialistic in your sympathies would have blessed this consummation? 'And .j I wonder, too, how many amongst you w'ould have come to curse it? - J For those to whom, politically, I am bitterly opposed, I have enough respect to believe that the latter would far outnumber out-number the former. As sure -as the Liffey winds to the sea, so surely will Ireland, a generation gener-ation hence, be a bilingual nation. More than that I fear we cannot hope. It seems to me that the exigencies of commerce will hold - the English language lan-guage with us; but, even if it do, the possession of our own beautiful old tongue, and the intellectualizing and spiritualizing influence which it will . exert over our people will re-establish amongst them ths old traits and the old customs, that were passing, or, haply,, had passed, and will re-establish for them the old ideals that were going or gone, and thus counterbalance the materialistic tendencies which the language of commerce must impose-upon impose-upon any people. We shall be Irish in scul and heart, as well as in name and tongue. , Go saoghalaidh Dia an Ghaedhilge! SEUMAS MACMANUS. |
