AN GAOḊAL.
319
"A nation which allows her language to go to ruin, is
parting with the best half of her intellectual independence
and testifies to her willingness to cease to exist." — ARCH¬
BISHOP TRENCH.
"The Green Isle contained for more centuries than one,
more learning than could have been collected from the rest
of Europe ... It is not thus rash to say that the Irish
possess contemporary histories of their country, written in
the language of the people, from the fifth century. No
nation of modern Europe is able to make a similar
boast." — SPALDING's ENGLISH LITERATURE, APPLETON & Co.,
NEW YORK.
Who are the Scotch? A tribe of Irish Scots who crossed
over in the 6th century, overcame the natives, and gave
their name to the country. — J. CORNWELL, PH.D., F. R. S.'s
Scotch History.
The Saxons Ruled in England from the 5th century and
were so rude that they had no written language until the
14th, when the Franco-Normans formulated the English. —
SPALDING.
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation
and Preservation of the Irish Language and
the autonomy of the Irish Nation.
Published at 814 Pacific st., Brooklyn, N. Y.
M. J. LOGAN, - - - Editor and Proprietor
Terms of Subscription — $1 a year to students, 60
cents to the public, in advance ; $1. in arrears.
Terms of Advertising — 20 cents a line, Agate.
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as 2nd-class matter
Twelfth Year of Publication.
VOL 10, No. 3. SPETEMBER. 1893.
Remember that the First Irish Book is given free
of charge to every new subscriber.
Subscribers will please remember that subscrip¬
tions are due in advance.
Gaels will be glad to learn that, from whatsoev¬
er cause — maybe the rejection of the Home Rule
Bill by the Lords, the Gael has received more new
subscribers for the last three weeks than it has in
the same space of time since its foundation. And
a number of them being desirous that the Gael be
kept clear of American politics; and we being now
satisfied that it has become the journalistic re¬
presentative of THE IRISH race in America, of all
political shades, that desire will be strictly respected
henceforth, however great the temptation of giving
the politicians a scathing.
Friends, England has again thrown down the
gauntlet; let us take it up defiantly by circulating
our literature. Let each Gael work as if the success
of the cause depended on himself alone.
HIBERNIANS,
You are the only organized body in America rep¬
resenting a nation that has not a journal in the lan¬
guage of that nation. What is the reason that
you are the only exception? Is it because your lan¬
guage and your race are inferior to the others? The
fact would lead a foreigner to suppose that such was
the cause. Why have you not a representative pa¬
per of your own, and you pay more for advertising
your business in foreign journals than would sup¬
port it.
Though THE GÆL is small it is now firmly fixed
as THE IRISH journal of America. By a united sup¬
port of it you could enlarge it and make it a weekly
or a daily, and advertise your business through it.
To make a commecement in this direction, we
shall send the Gael to clubs of ten, or more, to se¬
parate addresses, for 40 cents a year per copy; and
on these terms no Division of the A O in America
ought to be without it, and thus remove the anom¬
ally of a Hibernian being without a journal in the
language of the nation of which he claims to be a
representative.
TO THE IRISH IN AMERICA.
Brethren, for some time past we had hopes and
misgivings regarding Mr Gladstone's ability to sec¬
ure Home Rule for our native land. And we are
now satisfied that he could not command a majority
in the Commons only that some of those who voted
with him were sure that the Lords would reject the
bill, and that their support of it was merely to con¬
ciliate the Irish members in order to secure their
support for the enactment of measures pertaining
to Great Britain
We did have hopes that the Lords might consider
it more judicious to grant some concessions to the
Irish people than run the risk of challenging them
to renewed revolutionary efforts to free themselves
in view of the terribly destructive agency of warfare
which chemical science has recently placed within
their reach. So that the actions of the English peo¬
ple prove that they look upon the Irish as a race
too timid and too faint-hearted to resort to drastic
measures to regain their rights. This conclusion is
irresistable because it is only a few years since the
English themselves bombarded the city of Alexan¬
dria, with dynamite, sparing neither age nor sex.
And if they thought the Irish would act in a similar
manner toward them (they could raze all their cit¬
ies in spite of their teeth), they certainly would ac¬
cord them the half measure of self-government em¬
braced in the Gladstone bill.
What will the Irish do? Their first duty is the
preservation of their nationality by preserving their
language, and bide their time. Hence, all should
work as one man in the Gaelic cause. Remember,
friends, that a small but powerful section of the I¬
rish people are opposed to autonomy, and that
though they do not on the whole speak openly ag¬
ainst it they do otherwise all their power to frustrate
its accomplishment.
The language holds the same position among the
leaders in Ireland to-day that it did in Archbishop
McHale's time. But (thanks to the spirit of enthu¬
siasm which the Gaelic movement in America has
infused into a large section of the people) a large
number of the clergy and National Teachers take
an active part in its preservation. Hence, it is of
the first importance that we push the movement
here so as to encourage them at home.
It is a shame for Irishmen, who have been endow¬
ed by Providence with, at least, an average share
of natural intelligence, to remain passive, like a to¬
bacco sign, to be steered and jeered at by the pro¬
geny of — and concubines.
We were always opposed to the futile efforts made
by Irishmen to regain their political freedom for we
consider it the greatest folly to attempt to fight Eng¬
land in the open field. Hence we turned our mind
to the preservation of Irish nationality by preser-
