The Gael.
BROOKLYN, N. Y. OCTOBER, 1881.
M. J. LOGAN, EDITOR
NOLAN BROS., PUBLISHERS
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. — One Dollar a Year,
or Ten Cents a single copy. Mail subscrip-
tions, $1.20 a year.
Money Orders and all Communications to
be addressed to the Editor, at No. 814 Pacific
Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
For the first time in the history of the Irish
Nation a newspaper is printed in its language
and character. Before the invention of the
art of printing there was no newspaper pub¬
lished in any language, and since that time,
until recently, the Irish language had been
proscribed in Ireland.
Educated foreigners accuse the Irish people
of a want of patriotism for neglecting to culti-
vate their language. This, accusation might
be pertinent at the present time, but surely it
could not obtain when the use of the language
subjected the user to the forfeiture of his life.
When that immaculate King of England, Henry
VIII., heard that Pope Paul III. had conferred
the dignity of cardinal on the aged Bishop
Fisher, he said, “Paul may send him a hat,
but I shall take care he shall have no head to
wear it.” The Irish might make an effort to
practise their language, but the English would
take care they should have no tongues where-
with to speak it. Hence, it was no wonder the
Irish language fell into disuse, but the wonder
is that it survived the machinations of the un-
scrupulous enemy. The English ceased to
persecute the people for using the language
only when they thought that it had lost it
vitality. Of all the diabolical and nefarious
schemes employed to subjugate the Irish peo¬
ple, there was none more insidious or effectual
in its operation than the English education of
the people.
In Bishop Wheatley’s Life, by his daughter,
it is stated that he intended to convert the
Irish to English ideas through the instrumen-
tality of the National Schools, and that the
operation simply consisted in avoiding all
mention of Ireland and Irishmen in the text-
books, and so well did these wily tactics suc-
ceed, that a large number of the Irish people
will open their eyes and mouths in wonder if
they chance to hear any of their countrymen
lisp the national tongue. This is not all. But
this English education taught the people to
look on those who spoke the national language
as ignorant and unlettered, and this has been
practised to this day, when the practisers
should bow their heads in shame for the des-
picable part which they play in the ignomini-
ous drama which supplies the intelligence of
Continental Europe with material to shower
scorn and contempt on them for their want of
patriotism in not making an effort to preserve
their language.
What is the social standing of those people
for whose language and customs the Irish
people are asked to barter those of their illus-
trious ancestors? Fifty-five years B. C., or
nineteen hundred and thirty-six years ago,
when the Romans invaded Britain, the inhab-
itants were semi-naked savages, so unenlight-
ened that they considered themselves the spon-
taneous production of the soil. (Vide Ander-
son, New York, and Duffy, Dublin.) What
have the English been since? Even their
aristocracy — why, some of the noblest of them
are the progeny of sin and shame, and this
is the class of persons before whom the de¬
scendants of the O'Conors, O’Reillys, O’Neills,
O'Donnells, O’Briens, O’Farrells, and the other
illustrious chieftains of Ireland are asked to
pay obeisance. Forbid it, ye gods! We
shall now see what the English language had
been two hundred years ago. The specimen
we produce is taken from the works of a
Protestant minister, Rev. Joseph Coltman,
and is an inscription that had been on a pew
in a church in Beverly, England; it was writ-
ten by the minister, and therefore is presumed
to be a fair specimen of the condition of
English literature then :
"Pray God have marce of al the sawllys of
the men and wymen and ccheldryn wws bodys
was slayn at the fauling of thys ccherc whych
fown — — thys fawl was the XXIX day of
Aperil in the yere of owr Lord A MVC and
XIII, and far al the sawlls of thaym the whyth
haws him — — — shal be gud benefactor
and helpers of the sayd ccherc up a gayn and
for al crystian sawllys the whyth God wvd
have prayed for and for the sawllys of Ser
Recherd Rokkesbe, Knyct and daym Jane his
wyfe &c."
