The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-07
THE IRISH. ARE TO. BLAME
FATHER YoRKE PLEADS FOR
INTEREST IN GAELIC.
If Ireland Were Freed From Con-
tinental Languages Her Nation
atty Might Be Restored.

forcible and unconventional and hi
words made a deep impression.
He presumed, he said, that they were
all agreed that Ireland was a nation
and possessed all the factors that made
up nation. Now, how was poor Ire
land, and how did she stand? He wa.
afraid that anyone who examined
the education, the social, economical
political and even religious condition
OF Ireland would be compelled to admit
that the country had reached critica
period, that the foundations upon
which they built were being under
mined, the anchor on which they relied
I was dragging, and that unless they
! were up and doing the day would soon
come when Ireland would be Ireland no
more If they examined the so-called
national system of sO-called education
they found from top to bottom its lines
We're English. The same might be
said of the intermediate system of edu-
cation. The commissioners had stolen
from them two-thirds of the marks for
! Celtic; nor could they be blamed, for
forty-two Catholic colleges did not
send up single student in Irish, and
were it not for the good nuns in the
north it would have gone out to the
world that the women of ireland had
81 SCblClA lllt VI Ols DIS III
! and were it not for the Fathers of the
Holy Ghost. and for that noble and
self sacrificing and Woodworking body
OF men, the Christian Brothers, Pro-
lessor Mahaffy might tomorrow pro-
claim. like Jack the Giant Killer,
Irish is dead, and have killed it."
As for the newspapers, Irish topics
were carefully avoided In his days
they used to get in the Shamrock and
he Tyic1 al c%n
and Irish stories, but now the Weekly
Freeman ana other weekly papers
were made up of clippings from the
yellow press of America, and in the
hands of the youth of the country they
found the colored denominations Of the
English press.
They had another means of education,
namely, the theatres. The Dublin peo-
pie were supposed to be a theatre going
people. They prided themselves upon
their taste in music, and yet today they
were content to take the snuff that had
been filtered through the minds of
English doodery, and at the close of
those performances instead of the old
marching tune, God save Ireland,
they listened reverently to God Save |
the Queen
What he said was true, and it was
just as true that it was the fault of the !
II.
such an air have for the people of Ire !
land. Mingled with it's strains rose up |
in vision the burned roof trees, the peo-
pie cast upon the road side, the heads !
Of Irish peasants upon the pixies of
Cromwell's soldiers, the men who died
by the hands of the ASA ssin, and who
were poisoned, lying in their shrouds,
all rose up before their eyes. 1t called
up views of the long procession of Irish
aXileS from north, south, east and west,
who set out from Ireland
Ireland was not like other nations
For 600 years she had been as a vine
yard whose walls were broken down
and through whose paths the plumber
srs had swept. Every greedy adven
-urer had only to come over to Ireland
o fill his purse and were it not that
God had intended that ireland should
De nation, and should still continue
o be a nation, he did not believe that
hey would be able to survive at all.
f they went to work to build up Irish
they would have to take
stronger measures than ordinary under
he circumstances. He believed that if
. wall of brass, as Dean Swift said,
we're built 1000 feet high round Ire
and, 1t would be for the benefit of her
'eople. He believed that if they could
oW ireland into the Atlantic ocean
nd free it entirely from English and
onunental languages that such a
1easure would not be too much to re- ;;
tore to Ireland her diminishing ma
ionality.
They could not do those things.
were they going to allow their nation ;
MY TO be taken away from them? The :
una was the noblest part of man, and
they had Irish minds they would .
lrely have Irish bodies, and if tbev |
ould learn to think Irish thoughts and !
)eaK the Irish tongue, and if thew
1uIo orlng up their children in the
lsh language. and if they should re-
ara the English as other languages. as
Ieigh, put OF course still carry the g
nan voice of the practical men. and =
lie turtle voice of Professor Mahaffy
no told them that Irish was not worth c
e pother, and that Irish people would C
sc nothing If the whole of the Irish Ii
nguage was thrown into Dublin hav q
nat Iallacy had been well exploded by =,
7. Hyde, by DR.. Hickey, and by such n
en- as Dr.. Heneberry in America. Is
outside the Sanscrit literature there v
- none so UNIQUE. so beautiful or SO q
the old Irish literature, and what g
as more, it was the language Of the n
lsh people themselves. The irish d
ople. were not the sons of beaten q
bJects who had to be licked into shane p'
the Romans. Their language was u
elr own, and what was Irish was best ~
lrlshmen, and therefore when Irish 81
Is what Professor Mahaffy asserted il ~
Is or not. it was for Irishmen the ~
pest dialect spoken by the mouth of -
an 1t was their mother tongue. and u
was the best language for Irisbmes, w
10 loved their mother. But they ca
re told by the practical man that the -.
lchlng OF English was necessary for
)se who emigrated to America and n
other parts of the world. :
| was well known fact that no &
lntfy could be progressive whose =
ldren left their native shores in IL
'usands every year, but even on the X
estlon OF emigration he denied that
knowledge Of English gave Irish
n any advantage over Germans
les or any other nationalities. The
Y difference he saw between the
resentatiVes of those foreign ma
as. who had to learn the English.
the Irishmen. who had not was =
evidence of intellectual suggestive Ar
S on the part of the Irishman, be-
sc he only knew the one tongue. If
Gaelic movement progressed as it
uld be (the lecturer) could tell them
t position after position would -
iAtS w lildl WOulQ the SeGN-
Of disappearing people and then
practical men who stood aloof
I'D be compelled to acknowledge
t they made a mistake, and that
h was a paying concern.
oW the question for consideration n
this, was it possible to bring back Hi
nguage so dear to its people as the -
b language? He believed in the
place that nothing that the Irish
pie put their minds to was impos-
E. He was not now giving them L
It was called at the other side taffey me
oft soap. When the Irish people took
tiers properly in hand what APP )
red up TO them impossibilities be-
e not only possible, but actually
+ facts This was a peoples work.