24
AN GAODHAL.
WE have received numerous encouraging
and highly patriotic communications during
the last month, and we regret that the space
in THE GAEL precludes their publication.
Among the writers are Cornelius D. Geran,
Holyoke, Mass.; Counselor Peter V. Cothrell
Fort Howard, Wis.; Thos. F. Tracy, Po-
quonock, Conn.; D. Tendall, Detroit, Mich.,
and H. Bryant, Shackleford, Mo. We hope
the time is not far distant when we can enlarge
THE GAEL so as to be able to publish our corre-
spondence.
A concert of Irish music by the Philo-Celtic
Society, followed by a lecture entitled “Land
and Language,” by Mr. T. O’N Russell, will
be given at Jefferson Hall, corner of Adams
and Willoughby streets Sunday evening, De-
cember 18, 1881. Proceeds to buy Irish type
to promote the extension of the language.
Professor Egan of New York will discourse
National music on the Irish pipes at intervals.
Tickets 25 cents. Exercises commencing at
eight.
NEW YORK, November, 1881.
To Editor of “The Gaodhal."
SIR — When I took the first number of the
"An Gaodhal ” in my hands, those beautiful
words of Moore instantly recurred to me :
I saw from the beach, when the morning was
shining,
A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on;
I came, when the sun o’er that beach was de-
clining,
The bark was still there and — buidheachas le
Dhia — the waters were not gone.
How typical of the Irish Language Movement is
this metaphor? Four years ago that gallant old
bark was launched, yet although we thought
to see her on the bleak shore alone, she still
moves gloriously on. And the waters (fit em-
blem of the people) rise around her with ever
increasing volume, and now we see her borne
on each wave that she danced on at morning
to Hy-Brasail — the Isle of The Blessed.
But for four years she has sailed rather slow¬
ly; her sails were tattered and torn, and her
rudder weak and useless. Thanks to your
untiring energy, she has been provided with a
new rudder, and it is our earnest hope that it
will guide her straight to the hearts of her neg-
ligent people. An organ which will state, sup¬
port and mitigate, as far as it is able, the
wants of the movement, has been a long-felt
and wished-for necessity. Very little assist-
ance has been given this most estimable en-
deavor to propagate the Irish tongue, by the
majority of the race, who should by right
know and speak it well. While, be it ever to
their shame, some of the Irish leaders have
passed it by coldly and with distrustful glance,
as unworthy of their sympathy and acquies¬
cence. But notwithstanding the indifference,
neglect, and in some quarters the hostility
that has been shown to it, it is steadily ad-
vancing, and like the cloud that at first is the
size of a man’s hand, but spreads until it over-
casts the heavens, so shall this grand effort
spread until it envelopes the whole Irish firm-
ament. In ringing tones from across the sea
comes its protest against the oblivion to which
some of her unnatural children would consign
it. And in cheering response comes the an-
swer from America — east and west, north and
south ; the lingering echo of that voice rolls
along, saying, Its country’s language must and
shall not die. Ireland can well lay claim to
the brightest of poets, the most eloquent of
orators and eminent jurists the world over.
Yet it is a mystery to us that with all their
bright genius and sweet flowing poesy, they
saw not the beauty, the grandeur and sublim-
ty of their mother tongue. With what soul-
stirring beauty it would have infused their
verse ; and the elegance and fascination of
their oratory would have dimmed even the
lustre of Cicero’s profound name. In the ex-
quisiteness and pathos of its songs how truly
hath the poet wrote :
"It will waken an echo in souls deep and
lonely,
Like voices of reeds by the summer breeze
fanned ;
It will call up a spirit of freedom, when only
Her breathings are heard in the songs of
our land."
And oh! with such a language, can a coun-
try be content to live beneath the thrall of its
oppressor? No. A thousand times No, let
the answer be to each question
"Awake, my dear country, and dry up thy
tears,
Deep grief unavailing too long has been
thine ;
Oh! heed not the minstrel who fosters thy
fears,
And bids the dream of thy freedom resign.
It is our earnest wish, and the wish of every
sympathizer of the grand movement, that com-
plete and lasting success shall be yours in
your new and glorious crusade for the regen-
eration of the Irish people, both in a mental
and physical sense — the complete autonomy
socially and politically from its traditional op¬
pressor. That, I believe, is the principle on
which the “An Gaodhal” is founded For if we
are to rescue Ireland from the cruel bonds
that bind and keep her from enjoying that
God-given inheritance to man — Freedom — let
us not forget to unlock the door of her intellec¬
tual and moral prison, in which the murky
darkness of knowledge glooms the light, and
shed upon her the refulgent beams of liberty,
learning and language.
Yours truly,
P. M. TRAHEY,
Cor. Sec. of N. Y. S. P. I. S.
