We have never criticised the eff¬
orts of students of the language nor
permitted others to do so in the col¬
umns of the Gael because we did not
desire to discourage them and because
we thought that, in time, they would
correct their errors themselves.
However, we shall say here that
students who have attained a good
classical knowledge of the language
take considerable liberties with its i¬
dioms, and even other points governed
by general rules, thinking possibly
they know all about it — as we did
when learning English; we did not see
why the plural of sheep should not be
"sheeps." We are told in grammars
that the diphthongs ae, ao, eo, eu, ia,
and ua, are always long (eo in five in¬
stances, excepted, why, then, accent
them? Dh and gh lengthen the sound
of the vowel placed immediately be¬
fore them, why accent the i in righ and
croidhe? Why omit the i in cliú and
siúd when they are pronounced "clew"
and 'shewd"? Also, doubling the n
and l in words in which they mar the
pronunciation.
We claim to be as good an authori¬
ty on these matters as an ordinary
man because Irish is our mother tong¬
ue and that whether we have a know¬
ledge of any other language or not is
immaterial in relation to that claim.
But we learned some English, too. We went to
school at the age of nine (we were then able to
read McHale's Irish Catechism from home study)
and ceased at the age of eighteen, and Mr Pe¬
ter Duggan (a Maynooth student — uncle to the
Bishop of Clonfert) was our last professor. Our
first employment in America (23 years ago) was
that of school-teacher, which we pursued for five
years; and, passing our examination, claimed and
received our "Teacher Certificate", which we hold
to day among our papers.
The sequence to the above, then, is, that we
ought to have as good knowledge of our own ton¬
gue, at least, as we have of the foreign tongue of
which we are a Certificated Teacher.
THE SENTIMENTS of our SUBSCRIBERS
Conn — Ansonia, John H O'Donnell — Coventry,
Wm Sweetman, per T O'Regan, Williamantic — N.
Haven, John M Dean, Jas. P Landers — Williaman¬
tic, T O'Regan.
Colo — Guston, J Kennedy, M Burns, D Burns.
B Burns, J Burns, W J Boyle, F Dever, H Hagar¬
ty, J Meehan, all per Mr Kennedy.
Ill — Cairo, John Howley ($5) — Chicago, Rev P
Ward, per Mrs. Cloonan, St Louis — Apple River,
Rev J S Gallagher, Mr Ed Sweeney.
Ia — Harper's Ferry, Rev M Sheehan.
Ind — Indianapolis, St John's Schools, Rev Broth¬
er Aloysius.
La — Mayer, H Durnin.
Mass — Worcester, J Ahearn.
Mich — Detroit, D Tindall.
Mo — St Louis, Mrs. Cloonan.
Mont — Butte City, D Fitzgerald.
N Y — City, Philo-Celtic Society (5) per C Man¬
ning, Treasurer; J McGovern, Hon Denis Burns,
Miss Mary Needam, per Hon D Burns; P A Gin¬
nelly, per T Erley — Brooklyn, N Heeney.
Pa — Mansfield, Rev P S Quilter, P Connors, Pe¬
ter Dowd — St Vincent's Seminary Jas B Egan, all
the above per Mr Egan — St Vincent's Abbey, Rev.
Brother Philip Cassidy — Phila. Miss Mary Maho¬
ney.
R I — Providence, John B Murphy, John Murphy
Mrs Dempsey, J Sullivan, per P. O'Casey.
Vt — Bellows Falls, John P Hartnett.
Wash — Spokane, P D Cronin.
W Va — Beuw od. T J O'Donnell, J T Higgins,
per Dillon J McCormick, Wheeling — Wheeling.
P D Carrell, O McCann, P McCabe. M Gately, M
Fitzpatrick, W P Curran, per A Lally.
Canada — L'Epiphany, Ed Lynch,
Ireland —
Kerry — Cahirdaniel, J O'Sullivan, Captain T D
Norris, 40 Water St N Y City (before omitted).
Kildare — Maynooth, Messrs. Curran, Adams,
Brannick Walsh, Sherlock, Gallagher (St Jarlath's,
Tuam), O'Reilly, per M O'Reilly.
Mayo — Bonniconlan N Schools, J Loftus, P
Walsh, per J Howley, Cairo, Ill.
Waterford — J O'Callaghan St Stephn's Schools, p
D Tindall, Detroit, Mich.
England — New Brighton, R O'Donovan, Esq. per
P O'Casey, Providence. R I — Coventry, R Foley,
per Rev Brother Aloysius, Indianapolis, Ind.
Scotland — Isle of Skye, Dunbegan Rev Donald Mc
Lean, per Chicago Subs. News Agency.
No. 47 of Gaelic Journal has just come to hand
and is, as usual, full of interesting matter to the
genuine Irishman.
Ach a n-déarnaidh an t-Irisleabhar mear¬
bhall ag rádh gur chuir an Gaodhal dán
"fealltach" amach? Ní'l aon fhealltas
'san dán air leathanach 316 de 'n Ghao¬
dhal óir tá sé foilseać do 'n t-saoghal
& curthadh 'mach os cionn láimh an úghdair
& cumthadh & sgríobhthadh chum a chliú & a
theasdas do chosnadh anaghaidh maslaigh¬
the & bairsighe an te ar cumadh an dán
sin iona leith. Ghlaodh an te sin "Sean
Amadán" air an óide aosda, fóghluim¬
te Ó'Séaghdha, & i m-beidheadh An Gaodhal
