AN GAOḊAL.
7
"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
other 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 247 Kosciusko 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
Fourteenth Year of Publication.
VOL 11, No. 1. APRIL. 1895.
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.
With this number commences the 11th Volume
of AN GAODHAL. Some friends ask us why it
does not come out regularly every month. The
reason is, that we cannot reach on it. To answer
correspondents etc., and seeing that there is three
times more work on the Gael than on an English
paper of the same size, we think we are doing ex¬
ceedingly well. Since we started the Gael in the
month of November, 1881, it and our private bu¬
siness have occupied 16 hours a day out of the 24
of our time? What more can we do? To get help,
is it? Well, —
We would commend Gaels to preserve their
Gaodhals for in a short time the complete num¬
bers of it will be worth money. In 1881, when
An Gaodhal was ushered into the world, not one
person in Ireland, young or old, graduated in the
Irish Language! Next year, '82, 17 graduated in
it; last year 1,165 graduated in it from the school
alone without enumerating those of the colleges,
which must be considerable, for all the students
of Maynooth alone make a big item, and all of
them must take a three years' course in Irish.
We submit that the above is a good report for
the Gael on entering on this its 11th volume.
The Nation, of San Francisco, is an excellent
Catholic Weekly, and has a Gaelic Department.
It is published by C B Flanagan, and Edited by
M W Kirwin.
The Irish Republic, New York, has opened a
Gaelic Department (Yes, there is consistency in
that), and the New World of Chicago is about o¬
pening one; The Young Irishmen of Chicago (a
monthly) also. They have written to us about
Gaelic type. All who want Gaelic type can get it
at the cost of Roman type by writing to Mr Chas.
O'Farrell, Editor Irish Echo, No. 3 Le Grande st
Boston, Mass. Mr O'Farrell owns the matrice.
It is not necessary to tell Gaels that they should
give special support to those journals that print
Gaelic columns by taking a personal interest in
circulating them. If they do this, in the near fu¬
ture, all Irish-American journals will have Gaelic
columns.
And we would respectfully suggest to all those
journals having Gaelic departments to commence
with Bourke's, O'Growney's, or the Dublin Socie¬
ty's Easy Lessons in Irish, with now-and-then one
of McHale's Moore's Irish Melodies, with trans¬
lation, for 99 per cent of Irish-Americans are as
yet but infants in their knowledge of the written
language. But by pursuing the course we sug¬
gest a constituency will be made and retained of
the 2,000,000 of Irish-Americans who speak the
language. Also, the matter requires copying only.
THE DUBLIN REPORT.
As was to be expected, the Report of the Dub¬
lin Society for the Preservation of the Irish Lan¬
guage for 1894, and adopted at the Council meet¬
ing of February, 1895, is very encouraging.
The summary is, shortly, this. — The number
of Teachers who obtained certificates to teach
Irish under the National Board was 23, compared
with 12 in '93. Eleven schools were added to the
number in which Irish was taught in '93. 1,051
pupils of the National Schools were presented for
examination, compared with 831 in '93. The in¬
termediate or Christian Brothers' passed 489 of
their pupils, compared with 379 in '93; making
the total number of passes in Irish from both the
National and Brothers' Schools in 1894, of 1,165,
compared with 988 in '93. The Irish Language
was taught in 56 National Schools. The number
of Brothers' schools in which it was taught is not
mentioned, but seeing that the number of passes
from their schools is over two-thirds of those from
the National schools, it is probable that Irish was
