AN GAODHAL.
147
THE GAEL — THE IRISH LANGUAGE-
Language and Land should be the war-cry of
all true nationalists ; without these there can be
no nationality. Hence, it is the duty of every Ir-
ishman to keep these facts in view, to agitate them,
and to make an individual exertion to preserve the
one and to obtain the other. The GAEL has enlist-
ed the warm and active sympathy of a large num-
ber of priests throughout the United States and
Canada lately. We look upon this as a very
wholesome sign that a true spirit of nationalism
pervades our really educated countrymen. The
cost of the GAEL is only sixty cents a year, will any
one miss such a sum, and yet see what it will ac-
complish.
We have in this issue very interesting Gaelic
matter — Croidhin Treunwar and the Chase of
Thieving John, when these are concluded they
will be worth twice the price of a years subscrip-
tion to have them.
We would call the attention of our readers to
the Life of Archbishop Mc Hale by the Rev. U; J.
Canon Bourke. It is a beautiful work, every
line breathes that true nationality which the sub-
ject personated, and which controls the sentiments
of the author. The price of the book is one dollar
Father Nolan's Irish Prayer Book is a handsome
little book, There is not a word of English in it
from cover to cover — Price one dollar.
Gaelic Union — We have received several reports
from the Gaelic Union since last issue, all showing
that the Union is energetically pushing the Irish
Language movement.
Dublin S. P I; L. The Dublin Society is also
busy at work, but we guess the GAEL is a head of
them all. It took the greyhound to make a good
many springs to come up to the hare tho’ only
fifty springs ahead — the GAEL is that many hun-
dreds before our Dublin friends now, so that they
will have to treble their speed if they desire to
come up to it. We like this friendly rivalry. Let
our Irish-American friends work.
We have received communications from several
honored correspondents within a week or two
which we had no time to answer as yet, in a per-
sonal letter. We shall do so at an early date.
P.H. New York. — The gender of girl is fem-
inine, and takes the feminine form of the pro-
noun. None but a philological crank would
make it masculine. It would be as appropriate
to say he is a good girl or she is a good boy as to
put girl in the masculine gender. By a construc-
tion peculiar to the German language woman and
girl are put in the neuter gender in that language.
Send sixty cents for the Gael
2 Nelson St. Dublin, Oct. 19, 1882.
To Editor GAEL:
Dear Sir — In your issue of September last ap-
pears what purports to be a list of the officers of
the Dublin Society for the Preservation of the Ir-
Language.
Kindly allow me to say that that list is not cor-
rect. The Rev. Father Nolan is not the Honorary
Sec. of the Society. He is not even a member of
it and on more than one occasion he was scrupu-
lously exact in disavowing his connection with it.
I therefore wish to give him the full benefit of his
disavowal.
The Honorary Secretaries to the Dublin Society
for the Preservation of the Irish Language are
Professor Brian O'Looney M. R. A. and the writer
and the sole address of the Society is No 9 (nine)
Kildare St., Dublin at which address thro' the
kindness of Dr. Ryding, the meetings of the 1st.
Irish Language Congress were held last August.
I think it is well that it should be known once
and for ever to the American friends of our work
that the body known as the Gaelic Union and with
which Father Nolan is connected, has no relations
whatever with the Parent Society above referred to
and which was founded in 1876.
When the Society at great expense and labor
summoned the Congress to meet in Dublin, it was
one of the first acts of the committee appointed to
carry out the preliminaries, to invite thro’ Father
Nolan the co-operation of the Gaelic Union in the
work of the Congress. Father Nolan did not vouch-
safe to us the courtesy of a reply. Now however
that the Congress has recommended to the Society
the desirability of setting on foot a journal in the
Irish Language, we find Father Nolan and his
friends rushing into print to promise one by the
1st of November. Zeal sometimes outstrips good
sense. The announcement comes from them to-
day that a delay of 30 days more is necessary.
The Congress committee have felt their ground
carefully and well and by the time this reaches
you they will have definitely settled on the man-
ner in which they will carry out the Congress res-
olution recommending the Journal.
With the success of their work before them for
the past six years, they are confident that in this
too, their efforts, to promote the good cause, shall
not fail for want of support. The Society has
the confidence of the Congress and the country.
I will therefore put it to those who love union
and the Irish Language to send us their support
and enable us to carry out our work in a worthy
manner and place the language in its proper posi-
tion “in the old country."
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Richard J. O'Duffy, Hon. Sec. Society for
the Preservation of the Irish Language,
9 Kildare Street, Dublin.
Subscribers names to the new journal will be
received immediately.
