188
AN GAOḊAL.
manufactured for the shoulders of the
Irish-American youth; let him remain
under the false impression that he is of
a lowly race and all the preachers in
the world will not prevent him from
cutting loose from it.
The Irish-American youth enters the
workshop or the factory. His surround¬
ings there are anti-Irish and anti-Cath¬
olic. The fall upon him at once and
tax him with being a "Low ignorant I¬
rish" whom English education and en¬
lightenment have rescued from a state
of barbarism. If he object to this his
traducers retort by saying, "How could
you, Irish, be otherwise than ignorant
having had neither language nor liter¬
ature." The poor youth is completely
"shut up," and the badge of lowliness
thus firmly placed on his shoulders, to
be thrown off at the first opportunity
by allying himself with the "Scotch-
Irish." And, in presence of such state
of things, it is beyond the power of the
American clergy to remedy the evil.
The Irish hierachy (unconsciously of
course) are accountable for the state of
the Irish element in this country. They
taught the youth to despise the Irish
and to extol the English, and, as the
sequel shows, the said youths were apt
scholars. This thing has been pushed
so far as to banish the Irish Language
from its very cradle (St. Jarlath's)
THE SCENE HAS CHANGED. — It is a
matter for congratulation that expe¬
rience has opened their lordships' eyes
to the mistaken notion that Irish sen¬
timent could be conserved whilst edu¬
cating the youth in English ideas, and
that they have taken the first step
towards remedying the evil by found¬
ing a Celtic Chair in Maynooth College.
The language is being taught now
in a large number of the National
schools. Let their lordships order that
it shall be taught in all the schools and
to all the pupils, and in a few years
Gaelic literature will become so general
and the Irish people so well versed in
it that instead of denying their nation¬
ality, (as a large number of them have
heretofore) they would take pride in it,
and the horrid parricidal badge, "Igno¬
rant Irish," will be a thing of the past.
One might suppose from the forego¬
ing that Protestantism must have been
a large gainer by reason of the great
difference between the strength of the
Irish element and that of Catholicity
in the United States. There is no de¬
nying that it has made some, but not
to the extent supposed, for Protestant¬
ism has considerably declined, and is
declining, in America. But where the
weak-kneed, ignorant Irishman will be
found (if not stayed by the removal of
the badge of lowliness which makes him
now deny his nationality) will be in
the ranks of that great infidel army
whose only opponent in these United
States in the near future will be Cath¬
olicity.
"What good is the Irish Language?" say our
patriotic (?) Irishmen. We answer, — There is not
an Irish interest in the United States that the neg¬
lect to cultivate it does not injure in the ratio of the
6,250,045 who ackowledged the Catholic religion to
the United States census enumerators of 1890 to
the balance of the 25,000,000 of the Irish ele¬
ment who were ashamed of their country, barring,
we will say, 5,000,000 — giving the immigrant from
Ireland the same ratio in religious belief which they
held there, though all know that a larger proportion
of the Catholics than of the Protestants emigrated
to the United States.
Had the ancient language and literature of their
fathers been kept before the public no Irish person
would deny his nationality no more than the Eng¬
lishman would deny his, nor the Blue-stocking that
he is the direct descendant of the Puritans who lan¬
ded at Plymouth Rock. We should have no "Scotch
Irish" then, nor no other backsliders.
As before said, it has deflected millions of dollars,
not to mention political prestige, from Irish-Ameri¬
cans.
If the erroneously entertained idea that the Irish
are a lowly, ignorant race be not the cause of their
denying their country we ask those who differ from
our views to name any other cause. It cannot be
the religion for the Protestant only says, "Believe
in the Lord," the very thing the Catholic does.
Nay, more. Ireland was never so intensely Cath¬
olic as she had been during the time her enemies
admit that she had been the intellectual light of Eu¬
rope. The oppression and consequent poverty of a
people does not make them low, and a manly re¬
sitance to intellectual bondage (a quality which the
Irish of today do not exhibit) tends to raise them
still higher in the public estimation.
Hence, then, that much "good is in the language"
that until it is revived at home (thereby rehabilta¬
ting the ancient prestige, and its literature appear
the badge of lowliness will remain but which the
