AN GAOḊAL.
735
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation and
Preservation of the Irish Language and the au¬
tonomy of the Irish Nation.
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as second-class mail
matter.
Sixth Year of Publication.
Published at 814 Pacific st., Brooklyn, N. Y.,
M. J. LOGAN, - - - Editor and Proprietor
Terms of Subscription — Sixty Cents a year, in
advance ; Five Cents a single copy.
Terms of Advertising — 10 cents a line, Agate.
VOL 6, No. 4. SEPTEMBER, 1887.
IS THE IRISH LANGUAGE WORTH PRE¬
SERVING?
(Continued from page 716.)
[We printed two paragraphs of this paper, by
Father Yorke, in the last GAEL. It is concluded in
this number. So as to form a correct estimate of
the article, the reader had better go back to the
commencement in the last GAEL, and read it
through. And after he does so, we have no doubt
but that he will coincide with us when we declare
that the Irishman who is shouting for Home Rule,
and who is so unpatriotic as to permit his language
to perish, deserves the scorn of mankind. — Ed.]
All capable of expressing an opinion on the sub¬
ject are unanimous in declaring, that language
is one of the truest tests of a people's civilization.
This truth is self-evident if we contrast the cultur¬
ed languages of Europe with those spoken by man
in his savage state. When judged by this standard,
then it must evidently follow that the ancient Gaed¬
hill were, comparatively speaking, a highly civiliz¬
ed people. "The Irish language" says Vallancey
"is free from the anomalies, sterility, and hetero¬
clite redundances which mark the dialects of bar¬
barous nations. It is rich and melodious, precise
and copious, and likewise affords those elegant
conversations which no other than a thinking and
lettered people can use or acquire." Est quidam,"
observes Ussher, "hӕc lingua Hibernica elegans
cum primis et opulenta." "The Irish language
is the greatest monument of antiquity perhaps now
in the world. The perfection at which Gaelic ar¬
rived in Ireland in such ages is astonishing" —
(Scotch Gaelic Dictionary by Shaw.) "L'Irlandais
par son extension, sa culture et l'anciennete de ses
monuments ecrits, est de beaucoup la plus import¬
ante des dialectes Gaeliques." — (M. Pictet.) "The
Keltic dialects," says Jamieson, "seem to excel in
expressive names of a topographical kind. Their
nomenclatures are pictures of the countries which
they inhabit." "If," says that lover of his coun¬
try's language and history, Dr. MacHale, "the Irish
language were to perish as a living language, the
topography of Ireland, if understood, would be a
lasting monument of its significance."
Sir Wm. Betham says, "that the most ancient
manuscripts in Europe are in the Irish language :
and the oldest Latin ones are written by the hands
of Irish monks" These writers were, no doubt,
earnest students of the latter, as the language of
the Church. Nevertheless, as their extant works
sufficiently prove they sedulously cultivated their
own beautiful and copious vernacular, quite capa¬
ble of expressing the most complex ideas without
borrowing from the Latin or Greek, if we except
ecclesiastical terms. It is our proud boast, that we
had and still have a language in which our history
and antiquities are recorded long before any of the
nations of modern Europe could lay claim to any
such inheritance.
It goes without saying that our literature suffer¬
ed irreparable disasters at the hands of the plund¬
ering Scandinavians. As our old annalists assure
us, they took a special delight in "burning and
drowning the books of Erin." It is yet a proverb
in the country, that whatever escaped destruction
from these marauders met it at the hands of the
English. The latter from the day they first land¬
ed on our shores, even unto this very hour, have
left nothing undone in order to stamp out the nat¬
ional language. Witness the savage enactments
passed against it in the Parliament of Kilkenny, A.
p. 1367. The same fiendish policy was constantly
enforced by the ruling powers with a view to ban¬
ish the Irish language outside the English Pale.
In the year 1483, we find the Archbishop of Dub¬
lin petitioning Parliament for leave to use the nat¬
iinal tongue, as its outlawry in the very vicinity
of Dublin "caused souls to be piteously neglected."
In 1537, reign of King Henry VIII., according to
the behests of that despot, a most stringent act was
passed for the purpose of extending "the English
habit and language." It was decreed that all spir¬
itual promotions in Ireland, on becoming void,
should be filled by candidates who were pledged
under the severest penalties to use the English
language and no other. If such could not be
found, then the nominator should cause four pro¬
lamations to be made on four successive market
days in the town adjacent to said spiritual promo¬
tion. The formality being carried out, and the
aspirant found, on swearing to observe the statute,
he was at once inducted. All must candidly say
that this was rathar a novel way of collating to ben¬
efices, charged with the care of souls, but one quite
in unison with the clerical pretentions of that
much married monarch Henry VIII., the father of
Anglicanism. Suffice it to say, that in the reigns
of his successors, the national language was pro¬
scribed with a hatred that knew no bounds. Every
means at hand was turned to account solely with a
view to insure its complete destruction.
Were it not for the self-sacrificing exertions of
our continental scholars, Erin's exiles, who carried
on the writing and printing of Irish books at Paris,
Antwerp, Rome and notably at Louvain, and other
seats of learning, the most of the richest treasures
of our language would have been hopelessly lost
in those dark and dreadful times when the Penal
Code held sway. Even short as the period is,
comparatively speaking, that has elapsed since the
Four Masters and Keating wrote: and yet what
destruction has befallen our literature. Many of
the works which they used are not now in exist¬
ence. Everything considered, it is little short of a
miracle to think how we preserved so much of our
literature in the midst of such bitterly hostile ele¬
ments.
