The Irish standard., 1905-11-04

The Catholic Standard and Times
of Philadelphia contains the following
Dublin correspondence from III. W.,
under date Of October 12:
The Gaelic has come to Its own, but
the Gael is going. Everywhere the
children speak Irish and sing their
little songs and hymns in the old tongue
of their ancestors. The parents have
but a few words Of Gaelic, and they
are too old to learn now. This Is true
of three-fourths Of Ireland; it is only
in the West-the Limbo Of Cromwell
that the Irish language has been pre-
served without the aid Of language So
cieties and textbooks. The Connaught
man has his Irish without lapse; 1t Is
rare that one out of the west country
has to limit his blarney to English.
The Sassenach, as every one knows,
has been more potent elsewhere in
changing the names and obliterating
the traditions of old. Said a wicklow
but my little children, oyea, they have
it patti" And he was proud of it.
That Gaelic is compulsory in the
schools and a favored elective study in
all the colleges and converts is one Of
the most encouraging conditions in
present-day Ireland. The movement,
begun only few years ago. and scoffed
at alike by English and Anglo-1rish,
has astonished in its growth to present
proportions even the kindly disposed, to
whom the revival seemed to mean moth
ing more than literary fad or spasm
Of patriotism. 1t is literature, perma-
nent as of old, and it is patriotism re-
kindled and inextinguishable. Young
seminarians, who nowadays in Ireland
must learn their Irish as well as their
Latin before ordination, will not, suffer
the old language to go into exile and
imprisonment again; the millions Of lit
tie children who can read and write and
talk in Irish will keep the language
wherever they go.
Wherever they go-there's the rub!
For they arc going still, despite all the
anti emigration counsel offered to them
at home and abroad. In a lifetime OF
travel, nothing could be witnessed SO
heart-rending as the scenes enacted in
every railway station when the Cork
train" is due-the Cork train" that
means the Queenstown train-the train
for the ships. Whole families journey
miles from the inland country to bid
farewell forever to their wanderers. It
is tragic as death itself. Usually they
arrive at the station half an hour, or
even an hour, before train time. They
know nothing Of timetables; they
know only that they must be there, and
that they must not be too late. There
is great pretense of .cheerfulness be-
fore the smoke is seen or the whistle is
heard; there are messages to friends
on either side; there are gay little jests
shielding sorrowful thoughts: nervous
laughs choking involuntary sobs. The
parting is dreadful; everything is for
gotten in the anguish Of the final mo-
ment. One old man with fine Roman
face and flowing silvery hair may
stand for q voice and picture of
the other bereaved ones as, his trem-
bling hands outstretched to the. beloved
daughter who was leaving him, he
uttered the cry Of age and Of despair.
Never again. never again!"
Sometimes the guards. mindful Of
train time. and naturally deaf to the
entreaty zone minute more!" must
forcibly separate the emigrants from
their sorrowing people. During the
last two months the tide of emigration
has been unusually heavy, and in al
most every instance the same harrow
ing scenes are repeated.
OF the thousands and thousands who
60 forth year after year, how many
return? Not one in ten thousand, save
q few of the poor and friendless who
come home to die, and excepting, OF
course, the Irish American tourist
the prosperous one in a thousand,
whose homecoming, triumphal Song
NJ