AN GAOḊAL.
43
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.
Tenth Year of Publication.
Published at 814 Pacific st., Brooklyn, N. Y.
M. J. LOGAN, - - - Editor and Proprietor.
Terms of Subscription — $1 a year to students :
Sixty Cents to the general public, in advance ; $1
in arrears.
Terms of Advertising — 10 cents a line, Agate.
VOL 8, No. 4. NOVEMBER, 1890.
As we shall have no other opportu¬
nity to greet our Gaelic friends before
the New Year, we do so now, wishing
them, collectively and individually, all
possible happiness and prosperity the
coming year.
Greenfield, N. Y. 11-7-1890.
Dear Mr. Logan — you will find enclosed to Dol¬
lars you will place to my credit as subscription
fee due the Gael ; also, one Dollar to help the
movement. May God spare you long life to see
your efforts crowned with success.
The Gael is the most pleasing publication in
existence to the Irish eye and heart.
I wish to ask you a private question, or public
if not too much to tax you so, —
Some years ago, in Ireland, night-schools sprang
up teaching the Irish language. The teachers were
paid £8 a year, and the scholars were furnished
with book and other presents of encouragement.
After a while the clergy began to rout them, and
broke up the school. - - - Now. I would like to
know who were the founders of that movement,
and its object. Yours in the cause,
Patrick A. Dougher.
We are pleased that this question
has been asked, — The founders of that
movement were ostensibly the Exeter
Hall Soupers and its object proselyt¬
ism; the "Lion of the Fold," Archbishop
McHale, conceived that the real object
was the destruction of the Irish Lang¬
uage Hence the reason that in his
time he insisted that every student for
the priesthood in St. Jarlaths College
should pass an examination in the Ir¬
ish language, and that the Irish Cate¬
chism should be taught in every Cath¬
olic school in his diocese, and refused
the sacrament of confirmation to any
child of the diocese who was not able
to answer the questions therein.
The books etc. of the Souper schools
were biblical proselytising tracts; and
Archbishop McHale's idea was, that
they were so organized with a full
knowledge that the Catholic clergy
would not tolerate them, and not only
that, but that the fact of their exist¬
ence would turn the people against the
language, and that their [the soupers]
object would be accomplished. Where
the clergy erred [an error which they
can never repair] is, that they did not
take the course which Dr. McHale
did and have the language taught in
their own schools as he had in his It
was a foolish idea to suppose that the
soupers would be more successful in
their proselytising endeavors in the Ir¬
ish than in the English language, and
Archishop McHale's diocese is a living
proof thereof, for when he died over
95 per cent. of the people of his dio¬
cese belonged to the Old Faith, not¬
withstanding that the waifs and strays
of sin and shame from the Bird's Nest
and elsewhere were planted in Conn¬
emara with a view of swelling the An¬
glican count. He was the Good Shep¬
herd.
The souper's schools at that time,
and the neglect of the Catholic clergy
to follow Archbishop McHale's course,
did a lasting injury to the Irish lang¬
uage, to Ireland, and to Catholicity.
The Irish-American element in the
United States is over fifteen millions.
95 per cent of the immigrants from
Ireland were Catholics; the Catholic
population of the States today is sup¬
posed to be ten millions, and, at least,
one million of these are of German and
other European descent. What is the
cause for the falling off in the per cen¬
tage of the Irish Catholic immigrants?
[We assert that no Irish Catholic ever
changed his religion except through
pride, founded on ignorance, worldly
