AN GAOḊAL.
8
Irish Catholics, we find no layman of eminence
no one to fill the place of Sullivan or Hennessy.
Dr. Joyce and Mr. Flannery of London appear
but seldom. Then in the clergy, we shall meet
with very few Irish scholars. There are eight of
nine in the regular orders. The secular are repre¬
sented by Dr. McCarthy, and one or two others
rarely en evidence, and a handful of the younger
priests, willing, it may be, and earnest, but with¬
out influence or opportunities. Now, many of the
priests in Irish-speaking districts are fine speak¬
ers. It was often my privilege to listen to eloquent
sermons in beautiful Gaelic almost rivalling the
language of Keating himself, and as often had I to
regret that those speakers could not, through want
of some acquaintance with the written language,
contribute, as they were otherwise qualified to do,
to our modern Gaelic literature, as our brother,
Celts, the Welsh clergy, do for their own prose and
poetry.
It is in a humbler class of society that the lov¬
ers of our ancient speech are to be looked for — am¬
ong the ranks of the school-teachers. Some of
those devote their evenings, after their hard day's
work, and their well-earned leisure time, to com¬
mitting to writing, as well as they can teach them¬
selves to do, some of that great body of folk-lore
handed down orally from one generation to anoth¬
er, which is yet to be met with in those parts of
Ireland where the vernacular is the language chei¬
fly used. Better still, some, with the encourage¬
ment of their managers, qualify themselves to teach
the native language to their pupils, with the hap¬
py result that the children speak, read, and write,
both English and Irish. And, as the Bishop of Wa¬
terford noticed, the childeren who were thus taught
their own language first, and through it learned
other things, had a far better knowledge, of their
religious duties especially, than the children sent
to schools where Irish is not recognized as not
worth teaching.
It must be confessed, however, that the number
of Irish-teaching schools, although increasing, is
very small. Out of the thousands of schools in
which the children of the nation are educated, but
forty-five encourage the national language ; out of
the tens of thousands of Irish boys and girls grow¬
ing up in these schools, only eight hundred and
twenty-six were examined last year in Irish. On¬
ly about three or four hundred people in Ireland
have a respectable knowledge of the written lang¬
uage. In those days of education we are forced,
then, to ask ourselves, does education mean An¬
glicisation ? Can education, which ought to be a
development of the power of the mind, have any¬
thing in common with a system which neglects
and practically scorns that great power of speaking
a magnificent language which children have in the
Irish-speaking counties — a power which our for¬
eign friends, after years of study, are glad to obtain
even imperfectly. Besides, is it not right to en¬
courage a regard for national characteristics? If
so, let me set down some of the anomalies which
present themselves to anyone, especially a foreign¬
er, interested in the Irish language.
1. As to the position of the language in the ele¬
mentary schools of the country, something has
been already said. The school-teachers cannot be
blamed so much as the system which forbids Irish
to be taught to children until they are reached the
fifth class, just when many other eligible subjects
present themselves, and when youth, the proper
time for learning a language, is to a great extent
passed. Moreover, it insists that Irish, if taught
at all, shall be taught outside of school hours.
Now, who could expect that children would like to
learn anything, when doing so would mean spend¬
ing even a short time extra in school? And as far
as the teachers, they have no inducement to teach
Irish when they can more easily present pupils for
examination in other extra subjects, which will
procure equally great, or greater, results fees. And
in fact, it is not the slight fees held out by the Na¬
tional system that attract teachers to establish Irish
classes, so much as the prizes offered by a gener¬
ous Protestant clergyman living in Wales, the
Rev. E Cleaver.
II. Looking round the higher schools and coll¬
eges we find the native language practically ignor¬
ed. In all Ireland, only two hundred and seventy
four passed in Irish at the late Intermediate Exa¬
minations of these two hundred and thirty-four
came from the Christian Brothers' schools, leaving
forty to all the seminaries and colleges in the coun¬
try. In none of the Irish-speaking counties is the
vernacular recognized in the local colleges, except
in two. And at the same time French and German
pupils are brought over to teach Irish boys and
girls the intricacies of foreign languages. Granted
that there are, as I believe there are, more to-day
than there have been for the last two centuries
who can write and read Irish, there are surely far
more who can write and read French, German and
Italian — languages almost useless after four years
to the vast majority; while a magnificent language,
which it ought to be our pride, as it is our duty,
to foster and cultivate, is despised and allowed to
die.
III. Few of us have been taught to look upon
the loss of a language linked with the fate of this
country for three thousand years, as a national ca¬
lamity, or to regard its preservation as a national
duty. And so even private students, with rare ex¬
ceptions, see it decay with indifference. In the
periodical we read articles over Irish names, upon
all subjects except the history, language and liter¬
ature of Ireland.
IV. It cannot be denied that the trusted politi¬
cal leaders of the people, and many priests in the
Irish-speaking districts, are unable or unwilling to
speak to their audiences in the language which
the latter best understand, and which the speakers,
if consistent, should encourage.
V. Foreign scholars — Germans, French, English,
Danish — become enamored of our language — pecu¬
liar in itself, valuable to the ethnolist and philolo¬
gist, powerful, and delicate as a medium for con¬
veying thought, sweet and musical when correctly
spoken — and of our rich and varied literate. They
come from Paris, Berlin, and Leipsic to spend their
time working in the Dublin libraries, or in Oxford
or the British Museum, studying dusty scrolls, and
envying us our better opportunities of seeing the
MSS. which are, they assure us, most precious,
and which we in our ignorance, look upon as
waste paper. Naturally, they are surprised that
the learned of that Island of Saints and Scholars,
of which they have heard so much, should be blind
to the treasures which lie at their own doors, and
then, they say, where is the much-vaunted patriot¬
ism of Irishmen, when the ignore the greatest
proof of their nationhood?
And here is a question we may put to ourselves.
Granted that many of the richest and subtlest Ir¬
ish Catholic minds are engrossed with professional
studies and duties, with political questions, with
those great social problems which now-a-days pre-
