The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-07-21

to steal" Quite so. 1t was an obstacle
to business and had to be removed
The way of business must be kept clear,
and business means just whatever we
like, just exactly what we want to do
This is exactly the English mind, and
no less exactly the mind OF "No priests
in politics." That phrase could not be
rendered into Irish idiom. The genius
of the Gaelic tongue could no more as
Simulate it than the human system could
assimilate dagger in the stomach.
In all this connection I have been
viewing the Irish language as barrier,
and the only possible barrier, against
the invading tide Of English ideas If
this nation is to live on, or the church
OF this nation, the Irish mind will have
to be preserved; and to try to preserve
it without the Irish tongue is to en-
deavor to hold it while choosing the
best of all means for letting it go. 1t
is an imbecile dream, unworthy of the
intelligence OF nation, and yet we seem
unable to see it. We are constantly de-
nouncing dangerous, trashy reading to
our people, as if we hoped it might
check them in the choice of their literary
pleasures. 1t is far aptcr to kindle their
prurience and curiosity. The danger
from English writings did not exist for
Dur forefathers who kept the faith for
US; they did not read English. And,
after all, who will tell us how much
danger their faith escaped by that?
Anyhow, the plain hint is in it for the
true remedy against the growing plague
of corrupting literature. 1t may be
said, we must read English now. Yes,
and we must be able to read it, but if
we had the simple backbone to make
our own Irish really and truly Our own,
as it ought to be, Our English would
soon fall into its proper place. 1t
would come as a necessity now and
again, but Our own Irish would serve
the purpose or recreation, or amuse-
ment, at present sought in trashy Eng
lish novels and periodicals. Go back to
nature; make Irish what in the verv
nature of things it ought to be; make
it what it has been till yesterday, the
natural language of every Irish man,
woman and child, and then let them
know all the English in the dictionary
If they like. English will be to them
then just what it ought to be, an out
slider, a piece OF useful knowledge for
a need but rather heavy and unfamiliar
for the beloved hours of relaxation; a
dim doppelganger to their mind, ser
vlceablc, perhaps, in many ways, but
wholly precluded from any contact will,
the inner concerns OF the ego.
But perhaps I dream? How could
we learn Irish to such degree rs that?
How did we learn English to that de-
gree, and to greater degree than that.
tor we have not Irish now even as a
dim Doppelgangcr to our English? Sure
ly we ought to be able to learn what
is native and natural to us at least us
easily as what is alien and foreign to lis?
And yet am forgetting. The unnatural
and paradoNical seems to be Our normal
element. The penal laws drove us into
ignorance; but they failed to Anglicizc
us; the Irish language was still there
to take care OF that The smoother
methods of later times have been more
successful, because they took us kindly
and trained Our hearts away from the
l1ish language
Know thy fathcr1and" is the essen.
t'al groundwork OF any education en-
t:tiot to the name. But ours is now
tall1crland OF pitiful anomalies; and we
know it not. 1t is a land wrcre a
system for the distortion OF our dawn
1r:s intelligence is called education;
where schools invented specially to con-
sumo the vitals OF Our nationality arc
known as our national schools: where
our most patriotic Irishmcn will turn
all pages OF Webster to make sure oi
the pronunciation Of some English
word, while rejoicing in scornlul jig
norancc OF their natural language:
where to profess any knowledge Of our
mother tongue is almost as fatal to
ones reputation as to bctray symptoms
OF some harmless species of insanity.
where the finest and most gifted priest
hood in the world are unacquaintcd, al
most to man, with the tongue in which
their saints handed down their faith TIC
them: where we reck no more OF our
own most entertaining and fascinating
history than VIC might of the annals ol
mld-Airican pigmics, whereas in the
days OF OUR islands pride and rcnowl
the records OF our nation were matte.
Tor the solicitude and vigilance OF
kings. What does all this reveal?
Simply, that the metaphysics of Our ma
ton is already far more than threaten
ing. that the great, old, old mind Of
our country has been already long civ
ing place to the ovcrpowering spirit OF
tie English language, and we look I'M
concerncdly on.
The best part OF Ireland's history.
the really Irish part, cannot be read at
all without knowledge OF Gaelic. The
right and genuine idea of Ireland, the
true discernment OF Irish affairs, OF