The Irish standard., 1902-06-07

One of the most remarkable Of recent |
movements is the non-politic;,l revival
of Irish national feeling which has re-
suited from the work of the Gaelic |
league, says a writer i'll the Boston
Transcript. l say "non-pOlftical' adj
visetlly, Though the movement is GER
tain to have far-reaching political con-
sequences, because the Gaelic league
is strictly non-political and non-sec-
tartan. Its objects are two: First,
the preservation of the Irish as the
national language of Ireland and the
extension of it's use as spoken
tongue, and second, the study and pub
lication of existing Gaelic literature
and the cultivation of a modern litera-
ture in Irish.
1t SO happens that have watched
the modern development of this move
ment almost from it's inception. There
have always been in Ireland num-
Der of Irisll-speaking people, either bi-
lingual (speaking Irish and Englisl) or
been also few enthusiastic scholars
who studied and published old Irish
literature culled from some manu-
scripts preserved in the libraries of
Ireland. of varied seats of learning on
the continent of Europe. or who made
use of the Irish as a modern literary
language. I have in my possession
translation into Irish Of one of the
books of Homer, Homer's Iliad, the
work of the learned Archbishop Nc
Hale. Roman Catholic archbishop Of
Tuam. But it was not until the last
ten years that the cultivation of the
Irish language assumed national di-
mensions and seized on the imagination
of practically the whole of he younger
generation. That result is largely due
to one man. DR.. Douglas Hyde. Many
others have worked in the same field,
many are working now, but by none
has so large measure Of practical
success been achieved. DR.. Douglas
Hyde was an undergraduate at Dub
lin university at THE same time as my
self and he was one of my most init
mate friends. [ have the m9st dis
our acquaintance, of the day on which
I first discovered the extent Of his
knowledge of Irish and his enthusiasm
for it. Till then l had known him as
an accomplished student of literature,
English and German, and had hazy
II ton that he had IN extensive ac-
>quaintance with French and Latin. He
was also studying divinity with the
intention of taking orders in the Ang-
lcan church. l was calling OH him
tne morning in his chamb, rs III Trinity
college and the conversation turned on
some incident in the later books Of the
1liad. His extensive knowledge of the
classics took me quite by surprise.
he had never taken any hOnO.s in clas-
sizes or identified himself with that
study in the university examinations.
l gave expression to my surprise in
some such words as these: You are
Il wonderful linguist: how many Ian
guages do you really know well?" l
forget his exact answer. but among
those languages which he could both
speak and write The mentioned Irish.
Interested ut this-it was unusual to
find a man in Dublin university who
could both speak and write Irish-1
pursued the conversation on that sub.
iect only. Hyde said he had spoken
Irish as well as English from his child.
hood. He told me he dreamed in Irish;
and then. going to q cabinet under bis
bookcase. he took out great quantity
of manuscript written in Irish. II
wrote Irish verse; he said. This
astounded me. had never met a
man before who wrote Irish verse. l
asked him if he had ever published
any of it. He said some of it had ap-
peared in the American press in Eng
lish. translated by O'Donoun Rossa
At that time Irish newspapers took
very little interest in Irish. Many of
them had no Irish type.
Such was the beginning; the grain