Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-12
DOUGLAS nYDE'S AGENT
Called on People Interested in Study
 of Gaelic Tongue.

DuuSlas dyue, the eminent Irish
 scholar, who is expected to arrive In
 New York next Sunday, was in Water.
 bury to-day and called upon half a
 dozen or more people interested in the
 study of the Irish language. MT Hyde
 VIII give hls first lecture at Harvard
 college and will also speak at the
 catholic university, Washington. and
 other institutions of learning in differ-
 ent parts of the country. He has ac-
 cepted an invitation to call upon Pres ldent Roosevelt, who appears to be
 deeply interested in the work and has
 said some good things in favor of the
 movement. MT O'Concannon said that
 MT Hyde will devote about week to
 Connecticut and will be in Waterburv
 some time during the last week in
 November or the early part of Decem- 1 Der
 Born and reared in the Arran Isles.
 Galway, MT O'Concannon never heard
 much of the English tongue in his hov-
 hood, so that he is master of the lan- 1 guage and can converse just as well
 and probably better in Gaelic than in
 English. Besides this, he is heart and
 soul in the movement and has such a
 happy faculty of explaining all about
 IL that those who come in contact with
 nm quickly realize that he is the right
 man In the right place. In reply to a question from a Democrat reporter as
 to whether 1t was the idea of the Gael
 ic league to drive the English Ian
 guage from Ireland. MT O'Concannon
 shook his head and replied:
 No: we have no quarrel with the l English language We want to make Ireland bi-lingual. We feel that an
 Irishman's head is large enough to | hold two tongues. but first of all his
 own and to be Irish in speech as well as in spirit. It-would be foolish in the extreme to try and oust the English language from Ireland. We know Eng
 fish must remain. but while yielding
 to necessity what she requires, we
 must not forget what is due to our country Our work is plainly cut out for us and on 1t we concentrate our selves. Ours is not an exclusive liter ary cult. The movement. to quote the words of your great President Lincoln,
 Is of the people, for the people and by the people, and its success or failure depends solely on the people.
 "Vitally bound up with the language. movement is the industrial movement,
 which has made great strides during the last few years. At first sight there
 would appear no reason for the con- nection between the industrial and the language revival. but the reason Is obvious when pointed out. When a man learns Irish and thereby for the first time feels himself real Irish man. in close spiritual communion with the once great Irish nation, whose nationality he is now deter mined at all hazards to rescue, he will not satisfy himself by merely being Irish on the lips; he will be Irish all over. in his clothes. in his hat, and even in his boots. This is a law of in- variable occurrence and it has within the last few years doubled the output of the Irish cloth mills. Not in Ire land alone may this phenomenon be witnessed. Hungary and Belgium, for example, afford striking lllustra- tions of it. With the neglect of their language the industries of each, like the industries of Ireland, decayed to nearly the vanishing point, but with the revival of their home languages new industries once more increased and became fiourshing and powerful. Another indirect out come of the industrial movement, which largely flows from the language movement. Is the giving of employment to the people at home, who will be en- &pged upon these industries in ever growing proportion, and this tends to stem the tide of emigration which the | threatening the very life of the coun- try"
 Mir 0Concannon is 34 years of age | and came to this country when he was | 17 and was engaged in business here | for nine years, so that he is no stranger | in America. He doesn't think the mere | driving out of the English maie this | country the powerful nation 1t is. It | was the preliminary step. but it had to be backed up by creating a national | literature in the schools and training the youth to grow hp with the idea that they were Americans. He has great faith in national music and credits large share of the patriotism X 'sV hVtiNSaDte tNeIYWHeTe III tue lliteQ States to It's wonderful influence. Tn 1898 he returned to Ireland for what he thought would be a short visit, but when he got there and saw that the great battle of his race for the preser- vation of It's language. It's ancient Ideals and all that constituted its true was being fought, be deter mined to take hand in the struggle and became the first organizer, and for many years was the only organizer. and is now the chief organizer of the Gaelic league throughout Ireland. While acting as organizer he has com posed collection of technical terms in Irish. bringing the language down to date, and translated a number of stories into modern Irish.
 It is understood that the local Ieague will soon call meeting to make ar to bring Douglas Hyde to Mir O'Concannon left for New York this afternoon.