The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-01-19
GAELIC REVIVAL,
Easy to Learn and Spoken BY
More Than $50, 900 People ]
in the Old Land.
VIEWS OF REV. E. O'GROWNEY,
The Noted Celtic Scholar and Pro
fessor in Maynooth Col
lege, Ireland.

i056O1. III 14SsyAOOGA4 '0O4-
lege, Ireland.
Rev. Eugene O'Growney, the noted
Celtic scholar who edits the Gaelic
Journal, and is professor of Celtic in
Maynooth College, Ireland, is at pres
ent in San Francisco. In an interview
with reporter of the Monitor, Father
O'Growney gave much information with
reference to the present status of the
Irish language and the progress of the
movement in fav of it's revival. The
interview is as follows:
''There is considerable interest shown
at present in Celtic literature?
"A very great interest indeed.
Among the European philologists this
has gone SO far that hun dreds of them
have devoted themselves wholly to
Celtic studies. The chief Celtic organ
of scientific Celticists is The Revue
Celtique, published quarterly in Paris,
and I understand that second similar
publication ie soon to be started in Ger
many. Besides this. many of the linguis.
tic journals have Celtic articles, and all
philologists study some Celtic as mat
ter of course. It may surprise you to
learn that the best Irish dictionary is
published by an italian, Ascoli, in italian
and Irish; and the standard Celtic gram
mar is published in Latin written by q
German, Zsuss. In England there is 9
ready sale for recent translations from
the Gaelic especially in folk lore"
"This is, no doubt, encouraging; but
what are Irishmen themselves doing
was the natural question Of the reporter.
"Wel], you see, for many centuries the
speaking Of Irish was made crime by
the English law. After the English in
vasion, many mobiles of Norman birth
gave up the English tongue for thesofter
Gaelic, and severe laws were passed to
put an end to this practice and to force
the Irish race to edopt the language of
the invaders. All positions were closed
to those who did not adopt English, and
the result was that the native tongue was
repudiated by many leading Irishmen.
A feeling grew up that Irish was sign
of degradation and of a conquered race
and as those who spoke only Irish were
forbidden all education in their own Ian
guage, the English and the Anglo Irish
faction looked upon the Irish language
as sign of ignorance and barbarian.
This idea pervaded all classes of society,
even those who spoke only Irish, so that
people often pretended they could not
speak their native language, and parents
and teachers forbade children to use
their mother tongue"
"Is there any dictionary Of the Irish
language publishedr ~
eyes, there are several, but they are
all imperfect. In fact, until few years
ago there was no good grammar, no text
book. composition book or any of the
ordinary means provided for the study Of
other languages; there were no teachers
except two or three, and it was very diff
cult, indeed, for person to learn Irish
although thousands Of Irish psople were
most anxious to do 50. Within the past
ten years great deal has been done to
provide better books but great deal re-
mains to be done yet. Things look very
favorably just now, for the old degrading
idea that an Irishman should be ashamed
to know his mother tongue has almost
disappeared. It fingers on in a few dis
triots, but the majority of Irishmen are
ashamed now of the way in which the
language was treated and are anxious to
do something to show this.
"How many people speak Irish at
PRESENT."
.About quarter Of million in Ire
land, and dare say over million or
more in America. As to the number who
read Irish I could not at present give
you statistics. It Is certainly increasing
rapidly. A year ago we published the
beginning OF new series OF lessons,
teaching both the pronunciation and the
construction Of the language. This was
exactly what was wanted, and the lessons
were first printed in the weekly edition
OF the Freeman, which has very large
circulation at home and abroad. Then
the lessons were reprinted in the Gaelic
Journal, and finally issued in book form
at q popular price. They sell il ireland
for cente and people here should have
them for 10 or Is cents at most. I know
that over 5000 people have already com-
menced the study Of Irish from these les-
sons within the past year" 6.
.1s the Hish : difficult language 70
|lesrn IS.