The Irish standard., 1901-04-27
Irishmen Will Never Become West Britons
for the Sake of Mess
!, of >Pottage,
Says Hon. William: ::McAdoo to Large and
Enthusiastic Audience
in New York.

One of the largest audiences that has
ever filled the Lenox Lyceum, in New
York, gathered April 8 at the annual
= "Feis-Ceoil Agus Seanachas" of the
Gaelic Society. It represented the very
best of Irish-American life. Thousands
who are interested in the "Gaelic Re
bkvival" gathered to give evidence by
Ntheir presence of their appreciation of
the educational work of the Gaelic So
ciety.
Among those who occupied the box.
es were DR.. Thomas Adds Emmett,
Patrick Ford, John D. Crimmins,
James S. Coleman, Maurice ]. Power,
Denis Burns, James D. Murphy, M. D.
O'Connor, Miles NJ. O'Brien, ex-Su-
preme Court Judge Joseph T. Daily,
Theodore Wolfe Tone Maxwell, great
!. grandson of T. Wolfe Tone, and P. J.
I Tansey, while on the floor in the re-
served seats were noticed many Of the
leaders of Irish opinion
I The "Feis" began at S:15 sharp with
4 an Introductory or welcome in Irish by
fthe president, Major E. T. McCrystal,
and at the close he introduced the
chairman of the evening, Hon. Will
liam McAdoo, ex-assistant secretary Of
the navy, who spoke as follows:
II consider it very great honor in
deed to be allowed to preside at this
meeting. 1 congratulate you and I
thank you.
'sThis is not retrogressive move
ment. This is progressive movement.
We are not trying to take you back
4 into the dead past on a senseless or
N.fanciful crusade. We invite you here
this evening to witness, not the resur-
rection of dead language, but the
revivification of a living and yet virile
one. One of the Oldest Of the oldest
known to the human race, one of the
most honorable and one of the most
interesting.
"We have asked you in connection
4 with that to come here this evening to
participate in the uprising Of the ma
2 tional spirit Of the Irish people in Ire
-. land and in America, and all over the
!, world.
Fa,t'This movement began about 1873 in
the old country. That is, at that time
it was very feeble effort to resur-
rect an interest in the ancient tongue
Of the old race. The movement now
is to give scope and new life to the
Irish language on broad national and
racial lines, and not as a mere schol-
astic matter Of research. Our interest
is not coldly academic or pathological.
Our hearts go with our heads; indeed
4 our hearts dominate our heads. If
IAst0u should 60 tomorrow to some great
clinic in hospital afflicted with some
new and startling disease, scientific
men would receive you with intense
professional interest, but the dear ones
of your family would care little for
their learning except so far as it meant
life for you. This is the difference be-
tween the interest of the academician
and the patriot in the Gaelic language.
'There are two ways of looking at
the Irish language, from the stand
point of the scholar, the antiquarian or
the philologist or Of the patriot, and in
this respect we ought to pay our
thanks to the great German universi-
ties.
'"The Irish language, from the pure
ly pathological point of view, is one of
the most interesting in the world. 1t
has been passed over by English schol-
ars, and it remained for the Germans
with their known persistence and re-
search, to make it study in their uni
versities.
''There is scarcely a university in
Germany that has not a chair devoted
to the study of the Celtic tongue That
people, from purely pathological and
scholastic point of view, believe this
language so ancient that study of it
was not only interesting, but eminent
ly useful.
"But the people of Ireland take a
wider and stronger and more virile
view Of the subject. The Irish Ian
guage to any man or woman in Ire