The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-12-02
Or. DOUGLAS tlyde and the Gaelic

Dr Douglas HIDE, president of the
Gaelic League of ireland, who has just
arrived in the Utited States, where he
win give a seri f4&af lectures for the
benefit of the GaIic revival movement,
was given a glAat send-off by the
friends of the ctlse in Ireland on his
departure. An ddress was issued by
the heads of thl Gaelic movement in
the old land. EXPRESSING the hope that
his welcome on this side of the Atlantic
1vould he worthy{Af the services he has
rendered the IrissAanguage movement.
When DR.. Hyd6i took up the revival
of the Irish Language O. dozen years ago
it looked to manAlas II the tate OF the
old Gaelic tongue was sealed, Various
conditions, alnoIig them the hostility
of the so-called national board of edu-
cation, had resulted i'll the practical
death of the Gaelic tongue as spoken
language outside Of a few districts in
Ireland.
DR.. Hyde, WHO'S family has for sew
eral generations lived in Castlehyde,
was himself >borh in Sligo his father
being a mlniste AS boy he came
in. contact with, be spoken tongue as
is still lived In Ngo and RoScommon
and the moodS III eNpfeSSlOllS Ol tnS
language appajed directly to his
heart. Later, hhen he was studying
in Trinity c&sAe, where he achieved
high distinctiA.&ife still retained his
knowledge of the Gaelic tongue as
spokeu in tte,West of Ireland.
This did nogprevent him as an un-
dergrs duate finn gaining first honors
in German anh French as we'll as first
prize in Celtidand Italian. He won
gold medals iIflodern literature, Celt-
ic literature, tlkGsh composition, his
tory and oratofv, and graduated with
high honors.
In 1891 he blame interim professor
of modern Languages in the State Uni
versity of New brunswick, He soon
tired of this wAk, however, and re-
turned to his OF labors in Connaught.
He studied the tolk-lore of Ireland and
his finest collefioh of 1t, published in
Dublin in 1889, contained the Irish text
of a dozen or 1lore stories which he
learned from thaold Irish speakers in
the west of IrelAd.
In 1893 he beqne president of the
Gaelic League Bundled in Dublin for
the atio&bf the national Ian
zuage. Like aAnew movements, it
had an Up tiff - 1e ~(fTid III first at
tracted little notice. But Or. Hyde,
with the spirit Of a crusader. kept on
and neither adHitted discouragement
or feared defeEN and gradually i'm
pressed his n enthusiasm upon
thousands of " kng men and women in
Ireland until she Gaelic League bad
become a fore for nationality inethe
country.
The late Fsthey o'Growney. Father
Peter O'LearS oI County Cork, and
other enthusiastsllent their aid to the
work, and a Av$Ry gradually grew
Side by side witty the yirile force of
the Gaelic movehent in the country,
the Irish Parliamentary party in the
House of ConiInAns forced upon the
government the iecessity of recognize
ing the language movement. One of
it's members, Thomas O'Donnell, Nj. P.
for a division o'Kerry, who will be re-
membered as visiting Boston two oT
three years ago, startled the house
soon after his. election by addressing
the assemblagJ in the Gaelic tongue.
Later still tie party. in conjunction
with the Gaeic League, forced the
board of intan1ediate education to
place Irish in Certain places upon an
equal footing With other modern lam
guages. So seat was the result in
this respect ttat the schools in which
the language ietaught numbering only
iO5 in 1889, haze risen to, over 5000 in
1908. and the number of children at
present studyilg it in u greater or less
degree is now over 100000. The per-
centage of Intermediate and secondary
students who passed in Irish has risen
from 272 in 1S9 to 2,103 in 1904.
The Gaelic League, under the direc-
tiop of DR.. HIDE, conducts a monthly
magazine prhted solely in irish and j
weekly newspaper also written chiefly
in the nativ4 tongue. Most of the
Irish nationdl newspapers publish
Gaelic columns weekly, while May
nooth college with its organ, The Co
lumbar Annual. also thoroughly sup
ports the landIage movement. A quar-
ter of a millbn hooks and pamphlets
are issued yeBrly by the Gaelic league
while numerous writer's throughout the
country contribute TO the fostering oi
the native totgue.
Many of thu public bodies through
out Ireland make a knowledge of Gae-
lie prerequisite for appointment tc
public positions, and the managers o.
schools in vahous parts of the country
no longer will appoint any schoo
teacher who cannot teach ITish.-Tht
Pilot.