32
AN GAOḊAL.
concerted scheme to bolster up the
Gotho-Saxon plea for tyrannizing ov¬
er Irishmen, namely, that they are
not intellectually or otherwise capable
of manging their own affair?
We saw it stated the other day that
Whitley Stokes was a better Irish
scholar (though he could not speak the
language) than Eugene O'Curry! The
party making the statement knew its
falsity, but the name "Stokes" savors of
a Gotho-Saxon origin, and hence the
laudation! Not one of our brillant
Irish scholars is ever mentioned, ex¬
cept in disparagement, by the parties
to whom we refer, whereas some ob¬
scure foreigner is lauded as a model of
perfection.
From the bleatings of the class of
persons under review, a stranger com¬
ing in our midst would suppose that
the Irish language is only in its infan¬
cy and that it requires alien talent to
properly formulate it, thus insulting
every Irishman. A fool would under¬
stand that, all other things being eq¬
ual, no man is so competent to write a
language or to comprehend its drift as
the native speaker. Why do not the
West British criticisers of the native
Irish speakers and writers try to rec¬
oncile the irregularities in their own
language (the English) before they
criticise other people's?
The object of these men is to dispa¬
rage Irishmen and to retard the prog¬
ress of the Gealic movement, for if I¬
rishmen connot learn their own lang¬
uage how can strangers to it expect to
do so?
We have full faith in the efficacy
of the plan of forming committees to
encourage the teachers and pupils of
the Irish National Schools. There is
where the work can be done, and it is
in the power of Gaels to do it. The
amount of dollars and cents required
to encourage the teachers and to in¬
duce other teachers thereby to obtain
certificates to enable them to teach
also, is a matter of no account to us,
Irishmen, all over the country; and
the only barrier to our gathering the
rich fruits within our reach is the want
of back bone and nerve to make the at¬
tempt. Collar your Irish-American
neighbors, Gaels; place the object be¬
fore them, and you will find very few
of them will refuse to give you 25
cents; telling them at the sime time
that it will be noted in the Gael, and
also, that honorable mention will be
made of them in our Gaelic Historical
Album, so that their names shall be
transmitted to be lauded by genera¬
tions in the far-off future for their part
in this patriotic movement. Every
Irishman should have his name in
that book for it will be the effort of
our life to turn it out in matter and in
form conformable to the grandeur of
the subject.
Because of his great age, Mr Flem¬
ing urges the Gaelic Union to look up
a suitable editor for the Journal. We
hope our Dublin friends will make no
mistake in the selection, and that he
will be one "native" to the language,
with back-bone to place his foot firmly
on pseudo professors. That man will
make the Journal a success.
We see by No. 36 of the Gaelic Jour¬
nal, which has come to hand, that Pro¬
fessor Atkinson has made the astoun¬
ding statement that the Irish has no
corresponding word for the English re¬
lative "who." Seo é an fear "a" d'
íoc an t-airgead. In the name of all
that is fair, what is the "a" in the ab¬
ove sentence but the direct represent¬
ative of "who"? We see the quibble.
Seo é an fear a ḃuail Seáġan.
In this sentence our "Irish Scholars"
say that the language is defective be¬
cause it does not particularize the par¬
ty who struck.
Both parties mutually knew that John
had been beaten or the one addressed
would ask, "ar buaileaḋ Seáġan" ?
and the very demonstratives introdu¬
cing such expressions, namely, this
