The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-03-03

z
they came to ireland until within the last
hundred years. Applause e it was
granted, then, that, q PRIOR, the Language
Of any country was the language most
suitable for the study of it's sons UNLESS,
OF course, it be wholly barbarous Ian
guage without any iterature), it re-
NAMED for them to examine what kind
of language and literature the Irish
language and literature are, what we're
their meri and dement's, what were
their characteristics, and how tar their
study Of the same would be likely to at
feet them.
Surprising them to have mastered the
Irish language, to be able to read, pro-
nounce, and even speak it, they found
themselves IN face of a literature extend
ing back nominally 1000 years, and dem
onstratably to 1000 or 1900, literature
varied and extensive, but difficult to
read, and unfortunately, still more diff
cult of access. A good many specimens
OF Irish manuscript observation-disclosures
nineteen-twentieths Of it was yet in man.
ugcript-had been published, and could
be procured by the student. The litera-
| ture produced in this flexible and vol
luminous speech was enormous, but what
with the ravages of the Danes and Eng
lsh, and the gradual impovrishment and
destruction of the native, Only small
type of it remained, and yet, such as 1t
| was, it was more considerable than any
manuscript literature in Europe. 80
considerable that German scholar had
! estimated that what still existed OF that
written between the eleventh and seven
teenth centuries would I'LL 1000 octave
volumes. (Applause.] And yet, with all
this, they lay under the reproach OF never
having produced a great verse epic like
the "Illiad" or "Eaeid."
The fact was that the Irish genius was
not an epic one in the classical sense OF
the word, and that it delighted in some
thins quite peculiar to itself-a series OF
little epics, both in prose and verse,
rather than in one long drawn poem.
| Whether this was to be ascribed to the
forlorn and distracted state OF the coun-
try or to the Celtic temperament he could
not say, but he strongly suspected that
one cause Was quite as much at the root
of the matter as the other. The seventh
and eli xhth centuries were without any
! doubt the golden age of Irish literature,
which reached it's prime just before the
! coming of the Mortimer. They found
in parchment of the year HOO list OF
full poets qualifications. Among other
things, it was necessary for him to know
$50 prime stories and 100 secondary ones.
These stories were the Irish novels OF
the seventh century. Most of those
prime stories, in which the very essence
| of Ireland's national life was embodied,
were now lost, and most Of those that
had come down to hem were mutilated,
or we're handed down in mere digests.
But a few did exist, probably at full
length, quite sufficient to show what
kind the literature was like. .e
! If the Irish nation was ever to take
proper literary rank amongst the nations
| of the world it would have to unearth
and publish this literature, and in the
case of the older epics-if one may VEN
! ture to cell them so-the stories in which
the language was that Of the eighth or
ninth century, 1t would be necessary to
translate them into modern Irish, while
these stories which were preserved in
Archaic manuscripts and defaced by
Archaic photography, must be edited as
the English, for instance, edit their
Shakespeare-tha is, the orthogra ply
! must be edited and brought up to date.
If this were done to their imaginative
literature and to such important books
as the History of the Boru Tribute"
"The Warpath OF Turlough O'Brien,"
Keating's "History of Ireland" and some
others, the nation would be in possession
| of what would rank as wholly unique
body Of classics, the study of which
would have an incalculable effect upon
the national mind, and great share of
the Gaelic spirit would be recaptured
and preserved. Applause.
But it would be objected--why not
give us all this in English prose? If ono