AN GAOḊAL.
67
"A nation which allows her language to go to ruin, is
parting with the best half of her intellectual independence,
and testifies to her willingness to cease to exist." — ARCH¬
BISHOP TRENCH.
"The Green Isle contained for more centuries than one,
more learning than could have been collected from the rest
of Europe ... It is not thus rash to say that the Irish
possess contemporary histories of their country, written in
the language of the people, from the fifth century. No
other nation of modern Europe is able to make a similar
boast." — SPALDING'S ENGLISH LITERATURE, APPLETON & Co.
NEW YORK.
Who are the Scotch? A tribe of Irish Scots who crossed
over in the 6th century, overcome the natives, and gave
their name to the country. — J. CORNWELL, PH.D., F. R. S.'s
Scotch History.
The Saxons Ruled in England from the 5th century and
were so rude that they had no written language until the
14th, when the Franco-Normans formulated the English.
SPALDING.
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation
and Preservation of the Irish Language and
the autonomy of the Irish Nation.
Published at 247 Kosciusko st., Brooklyn. N. Y
M. J. LOGAN, Editor and Proprietor
Terms of Subscription — $1 a year to students, 60
cents to the public, in advance ; $1. in arrears.
terms of Advertising — 20 cents a line, Agate
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as 2nd-class matter
Seventeenth Year of Publication.
VOL 12. No. 6 DECEMBER 1897
Remember that the First Irish Book is given free
of charge to every new subscriber.
Subscribers will please remember that subscrip¬
tions are due in advance.
During the Xmas week the Gael sent to some
old subscribers a postal card with the salutation,
Cuireann an Gaoḋal Cisdeóg Nodlag
ort — Nodlaic ṡúgaċ agus Bliaḋain Úr
ṡeunṁar ċugad féin agus a ḃ-fuil faoi
do smaċt. agus
Ċuig na Gaoḋail
Air fuid an t-saoġail
and with which we now greet all, —
Which, closely translated, reads —
"The Gael puts a Xmas Box on you. —
A Merry Xmas and Prosperous New Year
to you and all under your charge, and
To the Gaels all over the World.
And the Gael has had many generous responses.
The Conn Catholic, Hartford, is
a most welcome guest at the Gael's
exchange table. Its editorials are
short, liberal, and scholarly.
IRISH-AMERICAN EDITORS.
Though, on the whole, the Cath¬
olic papers in the United States,
are better conducted than the oth¬
er weekly papers, yet their publish¬
ers are continually complaining of
want of support. Why? Because
the readers of these papers are ge¬
nerally Irish Catholics, imbued
with undying Irish National aspi¬
rations, who have lost all faith in
the utopian idea of fighting Eng¬
land, in her present prowess, by
such modes as those which have
collapsed since 98 — '48, '67, Land
League, and Home Rule, with the
lamentable result of Anglicising
the Irish Nation day by day.
Had these papers intelligently
and patriotically agitated for the
preservation of the Irish Nation —
which is THE LANGUAGE — which
would not necessitate the drawing
of a sword, or the shedding of one
drop of blood, the Irish-American
people would patriotically support
them. Scholars are, theoretically,
smart man — they are the most ea¬
sily duped people in the world, and,
sometimes, the most stupid.
In respect to the stolid refusal
(not in words but in actions) of the
Iris-American newspapers (and
the Irish, too) to do Irishmen's du¬
ty in the propagation of the Natio¬
nal language, we quote THE N. Y
Sun (concededly the most independ¬
ent and most learnedly conducted
newspaper in the world), of Decem¬
ber 22, on the importance of the
Language in its bearing on Natio¬
nal life:
"But a still more significant evidence that the
spirit of national life is yet a vital force in
Ireland, is the remarkable educational and litera¬
ry movement now in progress regarding the res¬
toration of the ancient Gaelic language and the
popularizing of its literature. The spectacle of
an oppressed people taking up the study of their
ancestral language after it had fallen into practi¬
cal disuse during a period extending over hund¬
reds of years, never before, as far as we can rec¬
all, has been seen in the history of the world."
Will our Irish-American contem¬
