AN GAODHAL.
831
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation and
Preservation of the Irish Language and the au¬
tonomy of the Irish Nation.
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as second-class mail
matter.
Seventh Year of Publication.
Published at 814 Pacific st., Brooklyn. N. Y.,
M. J. LOGAN, - - - Editor and Proprietor
Terms of Subscription — Sixty Cents a year, in
advance ; Five Cents a single copy.
Terms of Advertising — 10 cents a line, Agate.
VOL 6, No. 12. OCTOBER, 1888
TO THE READERS OF THE GAEL.
Friends, with this issue you com¬
plete the sixth volume of your Nat¬
ional Journal.
This is a very trying epoch in our
National history — an epoch in which
the most far-reaching and insidious
means are resorted to to denationalize
our country and to wipe us as a race
and nation from the face of the earth.
This is a bold declaration, but not
bolder than the lowering portends of
chicanery justify.
In the vicinity of the town of Car¬
low resides a rich family of the name
of Bruen. Old Bruen [who was a very
ordinary man] beautified his demesne
with all the ornamentation which mo¬
ney could buy or art supply. His de¬
mesne being thus beautified and or¬
namented, he caused these words to
be inscribed over the grand entrance,
"What cannot men and money do?"
A way, who passed the way and
saw the inscription, wrote under it —
"All the men and money from this to Naas
Could not put a handsome nose on old Bruen's face"
So, friends, all the powers of dark¬
ness cannot denationalize our race if
we pursue our course determinedly.
You have done more for the last six
years to preserve your nationality than
all the O'Connells and Parnells have
accomplished for the last sixty years !
Friends, what have O'Connell and
Parnell done for Irish nationality?
O'Connell did so much for it that fif¬
teen years ago, when the Irish language
movement was organized, a large num¬
ber of Irishmen would fain deny that
they were Irish at all! We hope Par¬
nell will be more successful, and if
he be, the result must be attributed to
the spirit of manhood generated by the
language movement, for Parnell is not
an abler man than O'Connell.
Then, the question comes "What
have you done?" First, you have giv¬
en thousands of your countrymen an
opportunity to learn, speak, read and
write your National language, and, by
its publication and distribution through
the instrumentality of your Gaodhal,
you have given the lie directly to, and
completely silenced, those who stigma¬
tized us as "Ignorant Irish." So that
your element is more respected today
than it has been in centuries.
Secondly, by taking your Gaodhal in
your hand and reading its contents and
shaking it in the face of that degen¬
erate portion of your countrymen who
would fain throw a slur on you for
speaking your mother tongue, you
cause them to stand abashed at
their own ignorance and to become
better Irishmen. Lastly, by throwing
broadcast your language and literature,
the evidence of your ancient civiliza¬
tion and enlightenment, [the origin of
which is lost in the haze of antiquity]
you preserve your Nationality and you
cause your enlightened neighbors of
other nationalities to respect you
and to sympathize with you as an an¬
cient, honorable race kept in bondage
by brute force
The O'Connells and the Parnells
might tell the nations that the Irish
were an ancient, respectable people,
but from the amount of dirt thrown on
them by the brutal Saxon, the nations
