AN GAODHAL.
105
"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." — ARCH¬
BISHOP TRENCH.
"The Green Isle contained for more centuries than one,
more learning than could have been collected from the rest
of Europe ... It is not thus rash to say that the Irish
possess contemporary histories of their country written in
the language of the people, from the fitfh century. No
other nation of modern Europe is able to make a similar
boast." — SPALDING'S ENGLISH LITERATURE, APPLETON & Co.,
NEW YORK.
Who are the Scotch ? A tribe of Irish Scots who crossed
over in the 6th century, overcome the natives, and gave
their name to the country. — J. CORNWELL, PH.D., F. R. S.'s
Scotch History.
The Saxons Ruled England from the 5th century and
were so rude that they had no written language until the
14th, when the Franco-Normans formulated the English. —
SPALDING.
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation
and Preservation of the Irish Language and
the autonomy of the Irish Nation.
Published at 247 Kosciusko st., Brooklyn, N.Y
M. J. LOGAN, Editor and Proprietor
Terms of Subscription — $1 a year to student, 60
cents to the public, in advance ; $1. in arrears.
Terms of Advertising — 20 cents a line, Agate
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as 2nd-class matter
Sevanteenth Year of Publication.
VOL 12. No. 10. JUNE 1898
Remember that the First Irish Book is given free
of charge to every new subscriber.
Subscriber will please remember that subscrip¬
ions are due in advance.
ENGLISH CRUELTY IN IRE¬
LAND.
Of all the cruelties to which the
Irish have been subjected under
British rule, none was so degrad¬
ing, so damnable nor so far-reach¬
ing in its diabolical intent as the
enforced illiteracy of the Irish peo¬
ple.
The pitching of the infants
from bayonet to bayonet in Drogh¬
eda by the English soldiery under
Cromwell; the promiscuous slaugh¬
ter of men, women and children,
knelt in prayer before the Cross at
Wexford, and the other unmention¬
able crimes perpetrated on Irish
innocence and purity, could not
hold a candle in their enormity to
the enforced illiteracy of the peo¬
ple.
When one reads of Admiral Dew¬
ey's victory in Manila — destroying
Ten Spanish war vessels with his
Five, without losing a man, or an
injury to one of his ships, he is al¬
most tempted to look on it as one
of the fable he reads in the Arabian
Knights, and, in a few centuries,
the readers of Dewey's victory will
be look on it as such; it seems so
incredible.
So with Cromwell's barbarities
in Ireland. They were so montrous
so unnatural that the majority of
Irishmen themselves, who are fed
on English literature, or who have
been swayed by England's evanes¬
cent greatness, treat them as such.
But Cromwell's butcheries and
barbarities had not the far-reach¬
ing evil effects on the Irish people
as had the edicts which forbade
the education of the Irish people,
unless they apostatized. Hence,
then, the parent would sooner rear
his child in ignorance than endan¬
ger his everlasting salvation. So
that the children of those parents
who were not able to, surreptitious¬
ly, send their children to Belgium,
France, Spain, or Italy to be edu¬
cated, were brought up illiterate,
and the statute making it a felony
for an Irish Catholic to educate his
children remained in full force un¬
til 1829 (diomadh Dé ortha, agus air
gać cać a thaobhuigheas leo).
And, behold how that devilish
law was made to play so promin¬
ent a part in Irish affairs, even af¬
ter its repeat, in 1829?
To cover the turpitude of Irish
rule in Ireland (and to such dam¬
nable lies our Irish ecclesiastics
seem to give the deaf ear), the sou¬
pers, their press, pamphlets, preach¬
ing, etc., used to try to impress it
on the people "That the priests
kept the people ignorant lest they
should read the Bible and know
