Are those the manners and this the lan-
guage for which the Irish people would barter
the civilization and literature whose antiquity
goes back to ages unnumbered? We must
here frankly admit that the intelligent and
educated Irish are awakening to a sense of
the anomalous position which they occupy in
the family of nations, and would feign find an
excuse for it. Hundreds of thousands of
Irishmen, from their English education, were
led to believe that the Irish-language and Irish
literature had had no existence except in the
imagination of some Irish enthusiasts, until
the movement now inaugurated for its preser¬
vation is being convincing them to the con-
trary.
From the formulation of the Irish language
into grammatical order by Fenius in the Uni-
versity of Shenar (the first educational estab-
lishment in the world), in the year A. M. 1898,
it did not cease to flourish, until English van-
dalism, jealous of our nation's fame for its
sanctity and learning, sought to destroy it. In
the Third Century, King Cormac established
three Colleges during, his reign, one for
science, one for agriculture, and one for juris¬
prudence. Now we may naturally suppose
that common education was pretty general
when three such educational establishments as
these were established in the reign of one
monarch. Will any of these facts appear in
the text-books of the Irish-English student?
No, not one. But everything tending to be-
little and throw into the shade the chivalry
and ancient cilture of our illustrious ancestors.
Seeing, then, the national ruin which English
education has brought to our doors, is it not
time for us to bestir ourselves and meet this
insidious enemy with suitable weapons?
Those weapons are the language and literature
of our country. The language and literature
of any country are the standards by which
the volume of its civilization and intelligence
is measured ; permit these to vanish, and you
are at the mercy of any and every scribbler to
mete out to you whatever love, interest, envy
or hatred may dictate. The plain duty of
every Irishman, then, is to put those weapons
in order. If this be done, all the machinations
of the enemies of our race and nation to
asperse the social superiority and literary
fame of our forefathers wil be fruitless. Had
the art of printing been in existence when the
Irish nation reached the climax of its literary
fame, all the universities of the world would
be stocked with its productions. As it is, there
is more manuscript material of history in the
Irish language than in all the languages of
Europe put together. Who is to explore this
volume of Gaelic matter? The Germans are
already moving in that direction. Some Eng¬
lish philologists are also taking an interest in
it. The latter would undoubtedy have moved
in the matter, only that they know the result
would be to place our nation in a more cred-
itable position before the nations of Europe
than would be pleasing to them (the English)
after the treatment which we have received at
their hands these seven hundred years.
Why don't the Irish themselves take the
matter in hand? Or why don’t they render
some assistance to those of their countrymen
who are? The easiest and most effectual
way of rendering this assistance is by encour-
aging Gaelic literature, and the most tangible
encouragement consists in patronizing it.
We place THE GAEL before the Irish people;
it will give the lie to those ignorant or envi-
lous persons who would try to make it ap¬
pear that the Irish people iad had cultivated
language, insinuating thereby that they were
uncivilized and unlettered.
We appeal to the Macs and the Os, the lin¬
eal descendants of the aristocracy of Ireland,
in the name of those martyred luminaries of
their race and nation, the refulgence of whose
learning and civilization, in the Middle Ages,
shone forth from the green hills of their coun¬
try and illuminated the darkened valleys of
Continental Europe, to come to the rescue of
this one unpurchasable inheritance, and to
defend it from the impending dangers which
surround it.
THE GAEL is small, but it is in the power of
Irishmen to enlarge it. We are able to pro-
duce it in this form once a month without ex-
ternal aid, and it rests with them to say
whether it will appear weekly or daily. We
would be pleased to see it weekly. As it is,
it cannot be said of the Irish people that they
have not the patriotism to have a paper in the
national language. They have this, and it is
not ashamed to exhibit on its forehead the
national stamp, in language and in letter, aye,
and in spirit.
Our next issue will be enlarged to six-
teen pages.
