78
AN GAODHAL.
December last was 426. The Council have also in
the press the well-known and charming Irish story
entitled, the “Children of Lir,” which will be brought
out on the same plan as that adopted in the “Pur-
suit of Diarmuid and Grainne,” and they hope to
have it published about the same time this year as
they brought out the 2nd part of “Diarmuid and
Grainne" last year. It will consist of text, transla-
tion, notes, and glossary, and will form the third of
a series of “Gaelic Reading Books” printed by the
Society.
The number of books sold during the year amount-
ed to 3,551, making a total issue of 59,081, or nearly
sixty thousand books, exclusive of pamphlets. A
pamphlet containing the Report for 1880, by-laws,
officers, and a list of the members who had paid their
subscription for 1880-1 was printed and circulated.
In addition, to the members of council elected ac¬
cording to the by-laws on the 17th March, the fol-
lowing were added to the Council during the year:
Rev. James Goodman, M. A., Professor of Irish, T.
C. D.; Mons. H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Paris;
Rev. Laurence O'Byrne, C. C., St. Laurence O'
Toole’s, Dublin ; Dr. Hugo Schuchardt, Professor
in the University of Gratz, Styria ; and Mr. Daniel
Lynch, of Philipstown, Dunleer, who passed a cred-
itable examination in Irish in the Royal University
of Ireland, having obtained 650 marks out of a pos-
sible 750 on its exceedingly difficult Celtic pro-
gramme. Owing to the nature and extent of this
programme very few will be willing to enter on it;
for, as at present arranged, the Irish student will con-
sider himself handicapped. All the above-elected
gentlemen are Irish scholars.
The Society has to regret the loss of its great
patron, His Grace the most Rev. John Mac Hale,
Archbishop of Tuam, whose demise is not only a
loss to the cause of the Irish language, of which he
was the chief ornament, but to the Irish nation, to
which he was so much endeared.
In consequence of the death of their lamented pa-
tron, the Council in accordance with By-law IV., e¬
lected His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Croke, Arch¬
bishop of Cashel, as Patron of the Society. In ob-
taining the consent of the popular and eminent
Metropolitan of Munster to act as Patron of the
Society, they feel they have secured the influence
of one who gives no half-hearted support to any-
thing he undertakes.
The Council hope that the obstacles to the teach-
ing of Irish in the convent schools in connection
with the National Board will soon be removed.
Having received complaints from the Lismore and
Oranmore Convent Schools they communicated with
the Board of National Education on the subject.
Were the managers of National Schools to give a
preference to Irish-speaking teachers, and were the
Commissioners of National Education to give the
teachers an opportunity of learning the Irish proper-
ly, as they do for acquiring kindred subjects, and to
permit the teaching of it freely in the schools un-
trammelled by restrictions, in a very short time the
preservation of the language would be assured. In
conclusion, we have only to urge the teachers of
Ireland to exert themselves to obtain certificates,
which would be creditable to themselves and at the
present crisis of their native language, a national
advantage.
"THEN, AND NOT UNTIL THEN."
By P. M. TRAHEY,
of the New York S. P. I. L.
Concluded.
Neither the cruelties of the “Virgin Queen,"
(which Englishmen are so ridiculously fond of
miscalling that blood-thirsty woman, daughter of
a like father), nor the inhumanity of the Dutch
Princes had the power to destroy that inherent
source and mainspring of National life, a nation's
language.
Now when those disabilities are removed, ignor-
ance passing away and enlightenment glimmering
upon poor Ireland — thanks to the inexplicable
something that moved England to such a good thing
for her; why is it that the great object of England's
enmity and envy, the Irish Language should be al-
lowed to lie neglected, and the people who should
love and cherish it endeavor assiduously to acquire
the language of the conqueror — in their mouths
the language of the slave. Why is it this genera-
tion and that passing away should allow themsel¬
ves to become anglicised and corrupted with An-
glican tendencies that the name Irishmen is dropt
the world over and unknown and in its place is
substituted the inglorious one of “Englishmen'?
And why should they resent being such since, by
adopting the language of England and opening
themselves to her influence, these are, apart from
the mere fact of first seeing the light of day in the
Green Isle, really and truly Englishmen. In this
state of affair, but for the dim memory of untold
wrongs and the horrors and woes of centuries agone
which transmitted from father to son, burn everlas-
tingly in the breast of every true son of Erin, and
act as a thick impenetrable barrier of hatred to
the amalgamation of the Anglo-Saxon and the Cel-
tic Races — Ireland would be completely enveloped
in the social tentacles of England, without one hope
or inclination for liberty as is her sister captive,
poor Scotland to-day. But even the memory of the
most outrageous wrong and poignant affections be-
come dim as ages onward, and are soon swallowed
up in the ever darkening past. And how could it
be otherwise with Ireland, without any other re-
membrance or tradition but the slavish tongue she
adopted! As she stands to day her every effort to
better her condition is frustrated by the machave-
