The Irish standard., 1893-02-04

ness and incompatible beauties Of the
Irish language; and, with all the force OF
his characteristic energy and eloquence,
he exhort ed his youthful hearers to take
to the study OF the Irish language. DR..
Douglas Hyde, president OF the Irish
National Literary society, few weeks
ago when delivering his inaugural ad-
dress, dwelt at great length on the.neces-
sity of preserving the Irish language, il
We are really serious in our professions
of nationality and in our eternal desire to
become a nation. And, surely, this is az
it should be. Is it not great blessing,
after all our misfortunee, to have one
platform upon which every man who
calls himself Irish may find firm foot
ing? Nor has the British government
been so remiss al some of ourselves
in the preservation Of the real foundation
of our nationality. II We are behind
time, it is our own fault or rather mis-
fortune. Our poor people we're, not I'M
naturally, anxious to learn the language
spoken by their well.to-do neighbors;
and they foohshly thought that the best
way to do this would be to discontinue
the use of Irish. The desire to 'get on"
in the world, and the opportunities arts
ing from the repeal of penal statutes,
and the granting Of Catholic emancipa-
ton, followed by the introduction of g
system Of education controlled by fan
atical West Britons, in turn, rang cut
the tocsin of destruction for the Irish
language. The lie that We had no liter
sture Of our own was ssdulously diesem-
mated. The bogy that every province, it
not every county, had different dialect,
came next, to do the work of discourage
ment and destruction. And SO the work
of ruin went on for many years. At last,
however, it has dawnsd on tho minds OF
the people that Ireland has language
of its own, az completely different from
the tongues Of other European races az
it differs from the jargon of the barba-
rians who roamed over the continent
three thousand years ago, when Ollamh
Fodhla gave law to ireland. We vene-
rate what is old, when it has 9 meaning
and history. Why, then, should not
every Irishman and every Irishwoman
advocate and support, on every occasion,
this oldest and most precious relic OF the
Celtic rase? It was admittedly the
pursst dialect Of tho family of languages
to which it belongs. It 10 set out in it's
own peculiar native alphabet. 1t il SO
rich and flexible az to be capable Of Civ
ing suitable expression to every thought
and feeling and motion Of the Celt 1t
is the language of all our sages and
saints. from Ollamh Fodhla and st. Pat
rick down to Daniel O'Oonnell and Arch
bishop MoHale. 1t is the language
spoken by the three thousand monks
who taught at Bangor, as we'll as of the
great teachers of Clonard, Clonmacnoiss,
Glendslough and Lismore. 1t is tho
language spoken by the only cultured
people In Europe during the two hun
drsd years that we call the Ozark Ages
1t is the language in which the topo-
graphy Of ireland is expressed, and in
which q meaning is found for the NAM
of every mountain and glen a.d hill and
valley and river and lake within the
four seas CT Erin. II is the language
that was spoken in ireland in the con-
turtles of her uttermost tribulations, and
which is still spoken by close on seven
hundred thousand people at home, rs
we'll as by steadily and ever-increaslng
number of mon and women and boys and
girls in places and countries whore the
prevailing language is not Irish. 1t is,
moreover, IN the front rank OF the favor
tie languages OF the leading philologists
of the world, and the least altered, 81
though the greatest and the oldest Of all
the languages now spoken in Europe.
Fashion almost killed it, but 1t has hap
ply survived the era of philistinism and
ignorance and bad taste. Its star is now
in the ascendant. The time was, aud
not many years ago, when the wretched
affectation of people who knew Irish, or
at least who ought to have known it, was
such that they denied all knowledge Of
the language which they admitted they
had heard their own parents speaking
constantly. What an unconscious oval
of wretched stupidity Fancy the
Greeks, while struggling for that free
dom which is now theirs, educating their
children in the language of the Turk.
or the Poles training theirs IN tho tongue
of the Russian! Or, to come nearer
home, let us fancy, five can, an Eng
]ishman giving up English, or q French
man giving up French. Should we not
rather follow the example of the Greeks,
who have to-day, practically, the Ian
pnapa which their fathara anolro in those