The Irish standard., 1894-05-19

THAT i1auRuf8Lo0 IN ETOvlQ0nce, a. T.: Dv
Rev. T. e. Ryan. The originator OF the
movement in the city founded by Roger
Williams is an enthusiast in the cause,
and he has enlisted the cooperation gof
such eminent scholars as The. Able Ho-
gan and DR.. Shahan, Of the Catholic
University; President Andrews and
Prof. Williams, Of Brown University;
the Protestant Bishop Clark, of Rhode
Island, and the Catholic Bishop Harkins,
of Providence. The Catholic University
will soon have Celtic chair to be en-
dowed by the Ancient Order Of Hiber-
mans, and before many years the nelli-
fluous language of Erin will be understood
by the graduates Of that institution.
The Celtic language is not dead Ian.
guage by any means. In Ireland $780,
600 persons understand it, and 10000 OF
them know no other language, while in
the United States and Canada it is es-
timated that 2,000, 900 persons are famil-
lar with the ancient tongue.
A writer in the Scottish American
throws cold water on the movement for
the revival of the Celtic language IN
America, and says that as far rs the
Irish people at home and abroad are
concerned, the language will be as dead
as the dodo in fifty years from now. He
declares that no people have proclaimed
their love for the Celtic Language more
than the Irish and that none have done
80 little to preserve it, and he blames
the Catholic bishops aud clergy for al
lowing it to fall into disuse. Al the
Pope's jubilee he says there was not an
Irish prelate to be found who was capa-
ble of presenting an address in Gaelic to
the Holy Father, and were it not for the
Irish prelates nine-tenths OF the Irish of
today would know their native language.
"If the Bible,' says the Scotchman, ''had
been translated into Gaelic when it was
translated int English, and if the
Irish people had been allowed to study
che Scriptures in the vernacuclar, no
power on earth could have put the old
tongue out Of use." l..
Had the writer been familiar with
Anglo Irish history through the reigns
of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth,
Elizabeth and James the First, he would
know that it was an utter impossibility for
the Irish bishops to translate the Bible
into the vernacular if they felt SO inclined.
These British monarchs hated the Irish
language and sought to abolish it..
When the book of Common Prayer was
adopted in the reign of Edward vi. it
was introduced into Ireland TO take the
place of the Catholic Mass, and though
she great majority of the Irish could not
understand English, they received the
book in an unknown tongue. . 1t was the
same during Elizabeth's reign, and the
Protestant historian Heylin employs
strong words when referring to the re-
markable Inconsistency Of the Anglican
reformers in forcing a new religion on
the Irish people in a language they did
not understand. It is only within the
present century that the Protestant BIZ
BILE was translated into Irish, and that
was for the purpose of making the PEG
pie apostatize from their faith, to which
they adhered through all the persecu-
lions inflicted upon them by the British
monarchs above mentioned. The Irish
bishops and priests in the days OF religi-
GUS persecution preserved both the faith
and the language Of the people, while
their brethren in Scotland abandoned
the faith but partly preserved their IAN
guage by accepting the Protestant Bible.
The writer is correct when ne states that
it is within the last eighty years that the
Gaelic has almost gone out It use in Ire
land, but when he adds that during that
time there has been no prescription
against it, he forgets that when the So
called national system of education was
established sixty years ago it was for the
sole purpose of Anglicizing the Irish PEG
pie by teaching them the language OF
their oppressors and giving them English
ideas in an alien tongue. The same sys-
tenn of denationalizing the French peo-
pie in the provinces Of Alsace and Lo1-
rsine is pursued today by the German
government.
The. writer, with some acerbity, pro-
ceeds to belittle the Irish people for the
lsmentable loss of their native language
and says: "There is nowhere an Irish
Celtic scholar worth bis salt. The Gael
&c scholars of any standing are Scotch
man, Welshmen, Englishmen, Germans
and Frenchmen. But for these writer's
we would know less of old Irish litera-'
ture than we know of that of the an
Gent Phnnicians. The Irish Celtic in
tellect came to stand still nine centuries
ago, and has contented itself with mark
ing time ever since. The history of Eu-
rope contains no such spectacle ct ar
rested development. Yet they, more