Evening journal., 1888-06-09
ERIsB LITERATURE.

4 ing rev. TfOI, MacdermOtt OF flnC =
land College lecture on "Modern Irish
Poetry" after introducing him to an
audience which kne " him q great deal
better than it did me. His lecture re-
called to my mind much that / had
thought before about the Irish Ma
tionalist movement, and thus suggested
the present article.
The ''penal laws" entailed many mis-
eries on Ireland in the effort to estab-
lish and perpetuate Protestant
ascendancy, and one Of the worst was
illiteracy. 1t was forbidden TO any
Catholic to open school fer the
education OF the young, and
Protestant schools with the
special purpose of proselytizing
were endowed out OF the public reve-
nue.. OF course the law was evaded
to some exteut. The old hedge schools
probably grew out OF such an evasion.
To open a school house might be an
offence; but who could find fault il a
poor scholar with his back to an Irish
hedge, gathered the children
of the neighborhood around him
and taught them to read
and write? In some parts of
the country these hedge-schools were
very popular and wonderfully effec-
tive. 1t is said that in parts of Kerry
every man, woman, and child could
speak good Latin, and the car-boys
would correct English visitors in a
false accent or misquotstion from
Virgil or Terence.
But in the whole the effect OF the
law was very mirchievous. 1t gave
the Catholic his choice between IIlit-
eracy for his children and their
education in an alien faith. 1t would
have been impossible to respect
him il he had not chosen the
former. The consequence was that
the land OF schools, to which in
early ages the English had sent their
children to get an education. and
where these children-as the English
historian Bede tells us-had been sup
ported at public expense, became
nearly land without schools.
The English schools for prose-
lytism fell into decay, where
ever they had not Protestant
population in their neighborhood suffi.
cient to justify their maintenance.
Even the Scotch Presbyterians Of the
North would not send their children to
schools which existed TO bring their
pupils into the Established Church.
SO the Ulster colony fell far behind
the mother country in the matter Of
education and general intelligence and
has begun to come up again only dur
ing the present century.
When the wicked law TO promote
and foster illiteracy was repealed it
left the people without the material to I
supply schools with good schoolmas
ters. The old hedge-school teachers
were the best that could be had, and
the people were too poor and too illit-
crate to establish good training schools,
It was little over half a CEN
Jury ago that the English Wings
list bestirred themselves to do
for the education of the
people. It was in the days when
was the intellectual cham
1ion of the party, and useful knowl
sdge" was ia the ascendency and was
10 regenerate mankind. The Wings
got Il into their wise heads that the
rlsh were discontented with English
'uie because they were ignorant,
md that the more they knew about
t the better West Britons they
would become. DR.. Whately. the Prot-
stant Archbishop Of Dublin cherished
j similar delusion that if the Irish
-new more of his church they would
'e more grateful for the blessings it
lad brought them and more ready to
DIN 1t. SO they set up the national
chool system for the Adjudication OF
reland by putting an end to its illit-
racy. No more fatal step was ever
AIKEN by the English rulers Of Ireland.
'nless it was the abolition OF the last
bred OF advantage Ireland derived
rom the Union by the repeal of the
,orn Laws. The National Schools
we're far from coming up to the ideal
4 what such schools ought to be.
hey were based on the absurd
dea that secular and religious
ducation could be kept apart and
,iven at different hours. In every
chsol hung, and suppose still hAngs,
pAsteboard placard with Secular
instruction" on one side and Religious
instruction" on the other. When the
'lAcard is turned aud Religious In
truction" is displayed those children
whose parents desire it are dismissed
rom theschool. In this wooden way the ,
eligiouu difficulty was supposed to be
olved by people who had not the
insight to see that every topic Of
leads on to religious cues
ions, and that none can be taught
thoroughly and heartily by teachers
Vho are forbidden to touch on {
heology. They did see that this :
Tas true Of history, and so 4
hey forbade that su iqct in the
'ational Schools and in the Queens
colleges. No Irish child was 20 learn O
word Of the history Of its own coun-
~. An Irishman might take his '
egree in arts without having ascer- a
aimed TO know who Grattan was or in II