AN GAOḊAL.
759
The
Gael.
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.
Seventh 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. 6. DECEMBER, 1887
The readers of the GAEL must have noticed from
time to time some adverse criticism on the propri¬
tors of the Irish-American press for their want
of patriotism in not giving Gaelic departments in
their journals. Many of these have written to us
privately acknowledging the justness of our critic¬
ism but calling our intention to the fact that they
knew nothing of the language, and, consequently
should they publish Gaelic departments, that they
would be at the mercy of all sorts of persons in
their conduct.
One gentleman said to us, "Mr. Logan, send me
a man capable and trustworthy to conduct a Gael¬
ic department, and I shall publish it, should the
initiatory step cost me a thousand dollars"
We believe now that a large number of our
Irish-American editors would publish Gaelic de¬
partments were they able to conduct them.
Now, at the suggestion of MR. PATRICK DONAHUE,
proprietor of Donahoe's Magazine, Boston, Mass.,
we shall relieve our brother editors of their embar¬
rassment. By an arrangement with Mr. Donahoe
it is proposed to give his Magazine and the GAEL
per year for the price of the Magazine alone, which
is two dollars a year. The Magazine contains one
hundred pages monthly, of very choice reading mat¬
ter, in fact, it is a magazine which no Irish cathol¬
ic family should be without. The GAEL gives les¬
sons in the Irish Language, with other interesting
Gaelic matter, so that it and Donahoe's Magazine
for two dollars a year, should find their way into
every Irishman’s library.
Any one then, sending $2 to Mr. Donahoe or to
us, will receive the GAEL and Donahoe's Magazine
monthly, for a year.
Before the Irish Language Movement got ahead
there were thousands of Irishmen who did not know
the shape of the letters of their alphabet (no won¬
der they were called "ignorant Irish," and the
majority of those blamed their parents for leaving
them in that ignorant state. Well, their parents
deserve some blame. But it must be said, in just¬
ice to their memory, that Ireland was then in
very peculiar state; that education was banned
that there was no channel through which Gaelic
literature could be disseminated, and that the peo¬
ple had enough to do to eke out a miserable exist¬
ence under their tyranical masters. But now mat¬
ters are quite different in regard to the language
for Irish literature is now within the reach of the
poorest Irishman. He can get the GAEL for six
cents a year, a fraction over one penny a week, and
if his children blame him for leaving them in
ignorance of the alphabet of their mother ton¬
gue, it cannot be said of him that he had
had no opportunity of informing them. Hence
any Irishman, of the present day, who goes to his
grave without leaving his children some sign or
token that their forefathers did have an alphabet
and a cultivated language has a good deal to answer
for.
If he cannot read it himself, for the lucre of six¬
ty cents a year, let him throw it on his library shelf
— some future generation may read it.
We respectfully call the attention of Irish-Am¬
erican editors to Mr. Donahoe's proposition. All
such editors can give the GAEL with their papers;
obviating the cost of type and composition, and
promoting the Gaelic cause.
The following is copied from No. 26 of the Dub¬
lin Gaelic Journal, which has just come to hand.
VERBS OF MONOSYLLABIC ROOTS IN THE
CONDITIONAL MOOD AND THIRD PER¬
SON SINGULAR.
BY THE EDITOR.
Our friends in America are earnast¬
ly discussing what is the correct pro¬
nunciation of the verbs above named
such as ḃuailfeaḋ, d'ólfaḋ, dúnfaḋ,
would strike, would drink, would shut.
On the one side, the Editor of the GAEL,
and those who think with him, would
pronounce these as if written ḃuaileó¬
ċaḋ, d'olóċaḋ, ḋunoċaḋ: just like verbs
in the same mood and number and per¬
son of more syllables than one in the
roots. Mr. O'Donnell and Mr. Ward,
&c., on the other hand, would pro¬
nounce such verbs as they are writen
— ḃuailfeaḋ, d'ólfaḋ, ḋúnfaḋ. Mr.
Logan and Mr. O'Donnell mentioned
my name incidentally during the discus¬
sion and this appeared to the Council
of the Gaelic Union to afford us an op¬
portunity of discussing the question,
and stating our opinions upon it, with¬
out in the least degree dictating or dog¬
matizing. The meeting at which the
question was discussed was fairly rep¬
resentative of the different provinces
of Ireland. Mr. O'Farrelly is a na¬
tive of Meath; the secretary, O'Mulre¬
nin, of Roscommon; Walsh, of Mayo;
Morris, of Galway; O'Brien, of South¬
