14
AN GAODHAL.
To my query, “An lobhrann tu Gaoidheilg?" I in-
variably received the answer, “I don't under-
stand you.” I spent two days endeavoring to
find an Irishman who understood his mother
tongue. In the course of conversation with
persons here I find there is a notion that an-
cient Irish is totally different from modern
Irish, and therefore scholars who devote them-
selves to the old Irish deem the modern un-
worthy of their consideration. I need not re-
mark how erroneous is this notion. The more
I studied the Irish language of the ancient
MSS. the more indispensable I found a solid
knowledge of the modern Irish. It affords me
great pleasure, then, to observe the efforts of
the gentlemen who constitute the Society for
the Preservation of the Irish language, and
whose united energy is accomplishing the
work which the Rev. Ulick Bourke labored at
for almost a quarter of a century. It would
be a shame for the rising generation of Irish-
men if they failed to spread the Irish language,
now existing in the remote districts of Kerry,
Galway, Mayo, Donegal, &c., and from the
grade of a patois to raise it anew to the rank
of a cultivated language, which, from the evi-
dence of an existing copious literature, it held
for more than a thousand years. Permit me
to evince my interest in the happy results of
your work by forwarding the enclosed yearly
subscription as a member of your Society.
Respectfully yours,
DR. H. ZIMMER.
Mr. J. J. MacSweeney, Secretary
of the Society for the Preser-
vation of the Irish Language. }
“OUR HISTORY."
As the article in THE GAEL of last month
entitled “AN CINNE GAODHALACH,"
will not, unfortunately, be comprehensible to
many of its readers, a few words on the same
subject, namely, the Origin and Progress of
the Irish Language movement in America,
written in the language which sheer necessity,
not love, makes us adopt, may not be mal
apropos. It is therefore with pleasure I accept
the invitation of THE GAEL's patriotic editor to
perform that task. Before I proceed, however,
I will say this much : It is my fixed opinion,
formed after much thought and careful con-
sideration, that the present generation of
Irishmen do not appreciate the full signifi-
cance of this movement. (Most of them will
not stop to think much about it, or indeed
about anything else. Were they capable of a
little cerebral concentration, they could hardly
fail to see all that is implied in the proposed
change from English to Irish.) It is my opin-
ion that the Irish people never will be really
free from England while they allow the Eng-
lish language to pass their lips in preference
to their own native tongue — while they inter-
pose no barrier between their descendants in
this country and the demoralizing influence of
the malignant falsifications of vicious, mali-
cious liars — literary bohemians who, for Brit-
lish gold, prostitute the abilities with which
God and Nature endowed them in a base and
cruel attempt to traduce our name and race.
I repeat, the present generation of Irishmen
do not appreciate the full significance of this
movement — that it is an antidote for those
evils. Indeed, many of them may sneer at me
for what is here said, but that is a matter of
indifference to me. I am getting so used to
their sneering, that it makes about as much
impression on me as water on a duck’s back.
I have here merely indicated my belief,
without arguing its correctness. At some fu-
ture time, with your permission, Mr. Editor, I
will give reasons for the faith that is in me.
From the present generation, then, we can
expect but little. It is on the “rising” gene-
ration (who, both here and in Ireland are, I
am happy to say, devoting considerable time
and effort to the movement) that we must
rely; and it needs not a prophet, nor the son
of a prophet, to perceive that the future men
who shall build up and develop this movement
are the boys now learning the language in the
Irish National Schools, for they will teach it
as they are learning it — systematically. And
all our experience has demonstrated that, how-
ever intense the patriotism of those engaged
in the task, to be taught thoroughly and cor-
ectly, a language must be taught systematic¬
ially. But, to quote Shakespeare, “this talk
is awry,” so to my task.
The question of preserving the Irish-lan-
guage was first brought forward and ably dis-
cussed in a series of letters to the Irish World
from the pen of Mr. Michael J. Logan, under
the nom de plume of “Gael.” Others took up
the question, and it continued to be discussed
with increased zest, the patriotic editor of the
Irish World generously throwing open its col-
umns. The immediate result of this was to
arouse an interest in the subject among the
