The Irish standard., 1894-01-20
THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

the days Of Lycurgus. A celebrated
scholar declares that one oonversant with
the Irish language could have talked
Hebrew to Moses, Greek to Aristotle and
Latin to Cicero, because Of the close at
fnity it bears to these ancient languages.
Why is it that a language so respectable
is almost dead language to the Irish
people of today? This question is more
easily asked than answered. Suffice it
to say that England is largely RESPONSE
BILE for the decadence and almost total
extinction of the Irish tongue, but Irish
men themselves are responsible to q
great extent for allowing their noble
language to fall into disuse. There is
scarcely one person out OF every eight in
Ireland at the present day who can talk
their native language fuently, and q
smaller proportion of the people can
neither read nor write it. The great ma
jority have discarded it for the language
of their oppressors and are more DESTROYS
to acquire knowledge of French and
German than their own. That TACT does
not elevate the Irish people in the estim
alton of men of other Municipalities. They
have tenaciously held to the religion of
their forefathers despite every tempta
ton to forfeit it for the religion OF Eng
land, as by law established. In the face
of every persecution which human in
genuity could devise for the abandon
menr of the faith implanted in their
hearts by st. Patrick, they have pre-
served it pure and indebted from the
days of the Reformation to the present
time, and four-fifths of them are adher'
ents OF the ancient faith at this hour.
They have also retained the strong de-
sire for national Independence and have
never become Anglicized. But they have
almost lost their native language and
have exchanged it for the language OF
their hereditary foes. Some one has OBJ
served that when people speak the
language Of their oppreesors and lose
their own they are slaves.
A grand movement has been recently
inaueurated for the revival Of the old
language of Ireland. Two of the Dublin
papers give lessons in Irish and Arch
bishop Walsh has encouraged them in
their patriotic work. In this country
there are several Irish American papers
that have Gaelic departments, and within
the past few years classes for learning
Irish have been formed in several OF the
large cities 1t is only last Sunday that
the Irish Americans of st. Paul organ
lied Philo Celtic society Tor acquiring
q knowledge of the mellitluous language
of their sireland, and the. men of Mime
apolis are going to follow their example.
The American people OF al! nationalities
will respect them for it, and the time
will surely come, and that sooD, when
men of Irish birth and descent who are
not familiar with the beautiful language
of Erin will be looked upon with con-
tempt by people who read, write and
speak the languages OF the European
from which they come. The
native born Americans of Puritan ex-
traction are SUI prised at the Ignorance
and Indifference of Irishmen in this re-
spect. George Parsons Lathrop, who
traces bis ancestry to the Pilgrim Faith
ers, has recently written splendid ar
ticle on the Irish language in which he
says:
GLOW proud, high.splrited, warm
hearted people, as undoubtedly the Irish
are, should ever have been guilty OF so
unnatural and SO craven sentiment as
to grow ashamed of their language and
wish to forget it, may we'll puzzle the
student of history Or human nature to
determine. Poland has been, and even
now is prosecuted far more severely than
Ireland ever was in this respect, and yet
that gallant nation retains her language
in her every department OF life and man
nere. The unfortunate Jew whom every
mans hand has been against for nearly
two thousand years still loves to sing his
Hebrew melodies in strange land, as OF
old by the waters Of Babylon. The
sturdy Welshman, notwithstanding bit
ter persecution from the Anglo Norman.
talks his native Gaelic today just as his
fathers did a thousand years ago, and
what is still more to their credit, the
Pole, the Jew, and the Welshman can
point with pride to distinctly national
literature circulated among their people,
not only in book form but in monthly
weekly and daily pamphlets and papers. .
Some of our readers may think that it
is folly for Irish-Americans to learn the
language and literature of ireland at the
close of the nineteenth century, when
English has almost become the universal
language. Why is it that the American
people st 1dy the languages OF France.