84
AN GAOḊAL
sent themselves at every turn, or with special stu¬
dies for which there may be a special aptitude that
one should encourage ; granted all this, do there
not still remain many who intend to read or study
something, and who can chose their subject? And
if so, have not the native language and literature a
claim prior to that of foreign studies?
At the Welsh National Eisteddfod, held in Ban¬
gor a few weeks ago. Canon Farrar made use of
the following eloquent words :—
"When a language has such a history and such
a literature as the Welsh, it is a possession which
men ought not readily to let die; and when God
has created a nationality, and has surrounded it
with rivers, with hills, and with the sea for its
rampart and its girdle, the world is all the poorer
when such a nationality disappears."
These words coming from a distinguished Eng¬
lish scholar, may be applied with ten-fold force in
favor of our own language, literature and nationa¬
lity Are the thoughts of generations of Irishmen,
enshrined in their own national language to be for¬
gotten? or is Ireland, after three thousand years,
to throw away her ancient tongue, a bond which
connects her with such past history as hers is, and
which would be for aye a proof of her distinct na¬
tionhood!
But what use is the Irish? This wailing over
the language is all sentimentality. This is a com¬
mon objection. Well, it is a sentimentality, and
patriotism is but a sentiment also, and the two
sentimentalities are closely connected. Yes, it
is a sentimentality to long for the revival of the
national language, and to wish to see the national
history and literature in their due place of honor,
but it is true patriotism as well. Witness Archbi¬
shop McHale, a great and consistent patriot, who
during his life did all he could to encourage his peo¬
ple to use their native language, and who under¬
took the translation into Irish of a considerable
portion of the Holy Scriptures (the only authori¬
sed Catholic portion of Scripture we have), of
Moore's National Melodies and even half of the Il¬
iad. Witness again, Henry Flood, Grattan's con¬
temporary, who left his large fortune for the en¬
couragement of the native tongue. Again, we can
point to Petrie, Todd, Hudson, and to many others
And yet it is not all sentimentality. Many a mind
which might make a stir in Ireland is being left
dark and uneducated in the Irish-speaking districts
today, as school inspectors can testify. And not
a few people are left without religious instructions
through want of one who will teach them in the
language they understand. I could mention in¬
stances of this myself.
It surely stands to reason that the history, lan¬
guage, and literature of a country are sacred nat¬
ional trusts. It is evident, too, that much of the
most interesting portion of Iris history, the ear¬
lier part, is as yet only a skeleton, which must be
filled up from the study of the early literature. A¬
gain, take our antiquities. To preserve our histo¬
rical monuments, and to record their connection
with historic events, is a good work; but I cannot
help thinking that much labor and energy are use¬
lessly thrown away by the dry-as-dust school of an¬
tiquarians in maintaining baseless or doubtful theo¬
ries, while the great national monuments, our la¬
guage and literature, are neglected and allowed to
perish. Not that the modern Gaelic is a ruin, by
any means, in itself; it is sound and vigorous; but
it has been sapped from without.
The language has no literature. This ridiculous
objection has been met a hundred times, but I sup¬
pose it will continue to be brought forward as long
as people neglect to inquire into the facts before
pronouncing their judgment. No one who has read
O'Curry's book, or De Jubainville's catalogue of
our epic literature, or even O'Reilly's meagre list
of writers, or who has seen those tomes in the Roy¬
al Irish Academy, which contain but an index to
the one thousand four hundred vols. of MSS. pres¬
erved there, can deny the extent, at least, of Gaelic
literature. As for the character of that literature,
we find Mr. Alfred Nutt, a recognised authority
on ethnology and early history, record his opinion,
"That except the Hellenic, the Irish sagas are
the only considerable mass of Aryan epic tradition.
As evidence of the most archaic side of Aryan civi¬
lization, the Tain Bo Cuailne is inferior only to the
Iliad or the Odyssey." *
And we may be sure that there is something val¬
uable in the literature, to study which foreign scho¬
lars come to the Dublin libraries, collate various
MSS. with much toil, and rough it in the coast
villages and islands, as we see them do, in order to
acquire a better insight into the structure of the
spoken Gaelic, and so obtain a key to the difficul¬
ties of the older language. Those scholars, who
are acquainted with all European literatures, ass¬
ure us that the Irish medieval an earlier literat¬
ure stands unrivalled, except by a portion of the
classics.
One reason why so little is generally known of
Iris literature is found in the fact that much of it
is anonymous — copied by scribes from older MSS.
There are some prominent names, however, but
these are seldom heard of; whilst the names and
works of even obscure English and Continental
writers are familiar to Irish boys and girls. It is
to be regretted that we have no handy manual of
Irish literature. Dr. Windisch's article ("Keltische
Sprachen") in the new German encyclopedia,
would make an excellent litte book, translated and
printed separately, as it gives in a small compass
an account of all the Celtic languages and litera¬
ures.
Upon us Irish Catholics the study of Irish litera¬
ture has a special claim. We maintain that the
faith we hold is identical with that taught by St.
Patrick and his successors; and they were, as we
are, Roman Catholic. It has been the aim of Protest¬
ant Irishmen to persuade their co-religionists that
they alone hold the pure patrician teaching, now,
as always uninfluenced by Rome. Strong articles
by good writers have appeared quite recently in
support of their contention, and very probably
this historico-religious question will be disussed
warmly in a short time, when present burning
questions shall have been settled. If this discuss¬
ion were put on us tomorrow, how many have we
competent to support our claim by arguments
drawn from our extensive ecclesiastical literature ?
Newman had experience of the value of such argu¬
ments, and no wonder he was so much interested
in O'Curry's work. The study of Irish literature
is but in its infancy; many things must occur in a
literature so extensive and so thoroughly Catholic
to throw light on the exact belief of the early Cel¬
tic Church. It has been shown that those who
study the literature are practically non-Catholics,
and such men might not see, or might be tempted
to slur over, a point in favor of our position.
So that even if Irish were to perish as a spoken
* Folk Lore, June, 1890, page 234.
