82
AN GAOḊAL.
THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
A REMARKABLE PAPER IN THE ECCLESIASTICAL
RECORD.
Father Eugene O'Growney of Meath, the well
known Gaelic writer, has a remarkably vigorous
paper in the November Ecclesiastical Record on
"The National Language." It is a subject on
which he is well qualified to write, and the paper
is characterised by that earnestness which mark
his style of writing in Gaelic. The article interests
from the opening :—
The death of Cardinal Newman brings to mind
various events in his chequered life. It reminds
the present writer of one characteristic incident,
mentioned by O'Curry in the preface to those Lec¬
tures delivered by him to the students of the Cath¬
olie University, of which Newman was then rector.
O'Curry had spent his life labouring in the neg¬
lected field of Irish literature. He had searched
the piles of MSS. mouldering on the shelves of
libraries, public and private, throughout Ireland;
he had visited the great English collections; MSS.
had been sent from abroad. from Belgium and
from Rome, for his inspection; he had studied vo¬
lumes unopened for centuries and he had thus at¬
tained a knowledge of the native language, litera¬
ture and archeology never before approached and
very probably unrivalled since.
Chiefly at the instance of Newman, a Celtic
chair was established in the new Catholic Univer¬
sity; and the oppointment of O'Curry as the first
professor, and the constant encouragement which
that great scholar received from the rector, were
all characteristic of the late Cardinal. The Lec¬
tures on the MS. Materials of Irish History, in
reality sketches of Irish literature, were the out¬
come of O'Curry's connection with the University.
Of the circumstances attending their delivery and
publication we read in the preface :—
"Little did it occur to me on the occasion of my
first timid appearance in that chair, that the eff¬
orts of my feeble pen would pass beyond the walls
within which these lectures were delivered. There
was, however, among my varying audience one
constant attendant, whose presence was both em¬
barrassing and encouraging to me - - - - whose
kindly sympathy practically showed itself. - - At
the conclusion of the course, this great scholar and
priest (for to whom can I allude but our late illus¬
trious rector, Rev. Dr. Newman?) astonished me
by announcing to me, on the part of the Universi¬
ty, that my poor lectures were deemed worthy to
be published at its expense."
The lectures were published in due course, and
no one who has even glanced through them will
assert that Irish literature is either non-existent,
or scanty, or worthless. One object of Newman
and of O'Curry has been gained.
But they had another object in view, as O'Curry
plainly states. It was to convince the Irish Cath¬
olic public, and more especially the educated class,
that to them first of all belonged the duty of beco¬
ming acquainted with, and learning to appreciate at
their proper value, the language and literature of
their ancestors.
Has that end been reached? Do Irish Catholics
to any extent know their native language to-day,
or are they at all acquainted with the character of
their native literature? Thirty five years have pass¬
ed since those lectures were delivered. In that
time Irish Catholic education has made great
strides. Yet, the number of those who can write
our native language passably, or who have the
slightest knowledge of our literature, is shameful¬
ly small. In whose hands do we now find those
lectures, delivered in the National Catholic Uni¬
versity, and treating of the most Catholic litera¬
ture in the world? Chiefly in the hands of for¬
eigners, and almost exclusively in the hands of
non-Catholics. Those precious ecclesiastical MSS.
first studied by O'Curry, have been published
in fac-simile after great toil and labour, mostly by
the exertions of Dr. Atkinson of Trinity College,
an Englishman and a Protestant. Two centuries
ago a Tipperary priest, fugitive in the glen of A¬
herlow, with a price on his head, composed valu¬
able works, some ascetical, others historical. After
that lapse of time, the most important of these has
just been set forth, not by a priest, nor by an Ir¬
ishman, nor by a Catholic, but by the same Dr.
Atkinson. An immense body of medieval sermons,
Catholic of course to the core, have been given to
Celtic students, again by Dr. Atkinson. The cal¬
endar of saints composed by the monk Aengus has
been printed by Whitley Stokes, an Irishman in¬
deed, and of a distinguished family, but not a Cath¬
olic. To him, too, has been left the honor of pre¬
paring the first edition of the famous life of St.
Patrick, and of publishing the lives of the early
saints from The Book of Lismore, writings which
throw so much light on the faith and usages of
of the old Irish Church. We find a Protestant
clergyman, preparing a dictionary of the words
used by the monks who in Donegal convent arran¬
ged the old Irish annals. We see Max Nettlau, a
German, preparing the text of our great epic, the
Tain Bo. Dr. Kuno Meyer and others spend years
in studying the glowing, romantic, and poetic lit¬
erature of ancient Erin, and of the early Christian
period — a literature which caries us back thous¬
ands of years, giving us charming glimpses of old
Celtic life. Even the organ of workers in the old
and middle Irish is published and supported at
Paris; articles on Gaelic subjects are frequent in
foreign periodicals, far more so than in papers
written for Irishmen; and our standard grammars
are drawn up by German scholars. Again, it is a
German and Dr. Stokes who are prepared to print
at their own expense, that great collection of words
collected by O'Curry, and thought to have been
lost until recently discovered among the MSS. in
Clonliff College.
It was, therefore, with a feeling of shame that a
distinguished Irish-American noted the other day,
"Two puzzling facts in recent Irish history.
First, the interest that Protestants and foreigners
take in the language and literature of that coun¬
try; a language and a literature not only full of
the spirit and teachings of Irish Catholicity, but
which contain in themselves the seeds of the
strongest and most aggressive Catholic tradition
in the world. The other fact, no less puzzling, is
the callous indifference or open hostility of the
clergy and politicians to the native speech and
literature."
These are, indeed, puzzling facts, and bitter to
think on; but we do not think on them, and so
we avoid their bitterness. They are facts, certain¬
ly; for what are the great names among Celtic
scholars of to-day. In addition to those already
mentioned, those of Ascoli, Ebel, Gaidox, de Jub¬
ainville, Nigra, Rhys, Thurneyen, Windisch, Zi¬
mmerman, occur to anyone interested in Celtic res¬
earch. All these are foreigners, and nearly all non-
Catholics. On the other hand, if we search among
