The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-09-24
FUTURE OF RACE
New Revival Promises Much for the
Old Country.
A Visitors Description of the Re
cent Oireachtas.

of ruins and weeds, and that there is
! no future for the Irish race:''
WHO told you that:" says he.
"Oh, I've been reading an interview
with Mr.. George NJ
rs that all:' says he. "Well you
| had better come over to Ireland and
see for yourself. There are twenty
six of us crossing next Saturday, and
| you couldn't do better than come with
u.s."
l found the Irish party easily
enough in the big crowd at Euston,
for IL piper was with them playing an
appropriate tune to show his JOY ut
the prospect OF getting out of hot,
dusty London. Later found that this
lrishman had never been in Ireland,
for he was the son of eNiles in Eng
land, and had learned all the Irish he
had in the heart of London, but,
equipped with that and his war-pipes,
he felt he could now honorably visit
the land of his forefathers. 1t was he
WIZ Ntpt Us hhciS VII tllc JouIlleS
with song and story and piping, though
, there were no sleepy heads among us,
and the mirth only ebbcd in one com
pHrtment to flow over into the next.
Even on the boat our tireless piper
piped i'll the dark for dancing feet,
and he it was who, in the early morn
ing, heraldcd the first glimpse of Erin.
They are to meet us at the North
Wall" said my friend. Sure enough,
as the boat drew in the strains of
pipes greeted our ears from the land
ing-stage. We We're soon ashore greet
ing representatives of the Dublin
Gaelic league. and then we whirled off
on jaunting cars to our respective
lodgings with promises to meet again
soon.
Next day we streamed to the Ro-
tunda, the great block of buildings
which stand at the end of spacious
O'Connell street, Dublin. Ten shill-
ings bought a season ticket which adj
mitted for the whole week to plays,
concerts, orations, and competitions,
and also to the exhibition Of native
industries which filled one of the
smaller halls, for the "Oireachtas" is
an opportunity for testing the vitality
of Ireland in every possible way as
we'll as a meeting place for all sorts
and conditions of people.
Perhaps this latter statement is mis-
leading. Gail sorts' did not attend
the Oireachtas; the Unionist and Par
imentary parties were entirely alb
sent. But within the National ranks,
Of which the Gaelic league is now the
most truly representative body, there
are members of every class of society,
landed gentry, priests, poets, shop
keepers, peasants, journalists, and art
lists, all bent upon learning to speak
and write the Irish language and to
| revive with it the native arts and i'll
dllstries. All Monday morning we
listened to singing competitions of
| men, of women, of boys. and of girls,
and then we went out to lunch in
pretty Continental-looking restaurant,
where the walls We're decorated by
panels painted by no less an artist
than Mr.. j. Il. Yeates, father of the
poet. In the afternoon the Ard Fheis,
or chief council of the Gaelic league,
held its preliminary meeting.
| That evening the great round room
filled to see two plays. written and
| played by native artists. The first,
"Seaghan Nil Scuab,' founded on an
old legend we'll known in county
Clare, concerning the election of a
Limerick, because he happened to be
the first man to cross Thomond bridge
| from the Clare side on a certain morn
ing, and it also introduced the wise
| woman, Biddy Early, once WELL
known character in Munster and
South Connaught, so that even if the
j play had not been written so we'll by
Mr.. Thomas Hayes, it's subject would
have appealed to the vast number of
| western and southern Gaels who were
present. The players We're chiefly
Munster men and women, many of
| them at business in Dublin, who had
used their brief holiday in rehearsing
| this play, and very beautifully they
played it, soft-tongued and graceful in
gesture.
The second play, Gan Doctuir," was
bilingual, and, though less artistic in
construction, was even more interest
ing from the fact that it was the pro-
duce of the little village Of Tamhain,
in Galway. Its author, a young doc
tor, had taken the girls and boys of his
village and drilled them himself in the
playing of his satirical farce, which
reveals the difficulties Of an English
speaking dispensary doctor in an Irish
speaking district, and the absurdities
and vulgarities of the 'shoneens"
there who tried to put on what they
| thought English manners with the
English garments. I had seen the
little farce in London played by more
practiced players from Tamhain, who
bettered them in every way.
Tuesday was devoted to story-tell-