AN GAODHAL.
115
"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." — ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
— "The Green Isle contained, for more centuries
than one, more learning than could have been col¬
lected from the rest of Europe. * * * It is not
thus rash to say that the Irish possess contempo¬
rary histories of their country, written in the lang¬
uage of the people, from the fifth century. No oth¬
er nation of modern Europe is able to make a sim¬
ilar boast" — SPAULDING'S ENGLISH LITERATURE,
[Anti Irish], APPLETON & Co., N Y.
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation and
Preservation of the Irish Language and the au¬
tonomy of the Irish Nation.
Published at 814 Pacific 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 — 10 cents a line, Agate.
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as 2nd-class matter
Tenth Year of Publication.
VOL 8, No. 10. SEPTEMBER, 1891.
THE GAEL tenders its grateful acknowledgments
to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for the use of the cut
of the Continental Currency embodied in the article
on Saint Patrick.
Remember that the First Irish Book is given free
of charge to every new subscriber.
GÆLS, we shall not cease dunning you until ev¬
ery one of you sends one or more new subscribers.
By this the procurer may be not only the medium of
making one more Irish scholar but hundreds as in
the case of Mr. O'Sullivan, referred to in another
column We appeal to the old workers to follow up
the victory already attained. It has been said that
the Irish lack perseverance in any cause; we hope
Gaels will reverse the uncomplimentary allegation.
Already the language is safe, for the thousands of
the youth who are being studying it now will pres¬
erve it. But we not only want its preservation but
also its use as the official language of Ireland in the
near future.
It has been frequently asked, How was it that the
religion of Ireland withstood the Saxon persecution
while the language, in part, succumbed to it. The
cause is plain. The trunk of the religious tree was
beyond the reach of the Saxon, and no sooner had
one limb been lopped off than another had been en¬
grafted in its place. — The poor language had had no
friend or base of supply. It has both now, limited
to be sure, but if Irishmen be men it will have them
coextensive with the race.
When the movement for the preservation of the
language was initiated Irishmen held aloof from
assisting it saying, that it was beyond redemp¬
tion." We are curious to know what will be their
excuse now? Others, disengenuously, offered as an
excuse that one language was enough for America,
well knowing that it had nothing to do with Ameri¬
ca, and that its object was to urge and support its
cultivation in Ireland with the view of preserving
Irish Nationality and as an evidence of the early
culture of the Irish people.
Doubtlessly, a large number of patriotic Irishmen
held aloof from supporting the language movement
believing that Ireland could never regain her inde¬
pendence from so powerful and unscrupulous a na¬
tion as England. But, even so, national pride should
impel them to preserve the evidence of the social su¬
periority of their nation and not willingly permit
themselves to merge in a people whose social ante¬
cedents have been that of the brute, Besides, Eng¬
land's power is vanishing. She was big when there
was no bigger. Her home territory is too small to
support her population, and she is too far away from
her dependencies to force an unwilling support from
them. The United States, Canada, Australia, and
the other civilized nations of the world are adopting
the protective principle; so when England's manu¬
factures are shut out from these her power will col¬
lapse like a big air-balloon. Her only hope now is
India; but, Russia, a compact power of 120,000,000
of people and a contiguous unlimited productive ter¬
ritory, lying beside it, it does not take a prophet to
divine that her hold there will be of short duration.
Russia will be the mistress of the Old World — the
United States, of the New. England will descend
to a fifth class power, and Ireland will manage her
own affairs — in her own language.
TO THE IRISH-AMERICAN PRESS.
As noted in last issue, the CATHOLIC
TRIBUNE, St. Joseph, Mo., anxious to
promote the Gaelic cause, suggested
to us some time ago to prepare Gaelic
matter, get it stereotyped, and send a
cut of it to all the Irish-American pa¬
pers willing to publish it and to con¬
tribute to its production. We were not
in a position to act on the suggestion
then; we shall do so now and repro¬
uce the First, Second, and Third Irish
Books of the Dublin Society in weekly
installments and supply every editor
willing to subscribe for it with an el¬
ectrotype cut of it. We shall get up
the cuts in ordinary school-book form,
say, 23 x 34 pica ems, so that each cut
will form a page if the editors should
afterwards desire to issue the work in
book form. We shall also, as the les¬
sons get advanced, intersperse them
with some of Dr. McHale's translations
of Moore's Melodies, Dr. Gallagher's
Sermons, and Father O'Sullivans Imi¬
