The Irish standard., 1905-11-25
He is Giving Time to Movement to Save
the Ancestral Tongue of His People
From Being Lost.
This Great Movement is Untrammeled By
Politics and Appeals to All Irish
Regardless of Greed.

saved from passing, because as Ian
guage holds the garnered experience
of race nationality is intensified when
men and women speak the tongue in
which their forbears voiced themselves.
Animated by this idea, DR.. Hyde has
devoted his time, his energy, his bril-
liant scholarship to this one end. He
sounded the first rallying note of the
of the Gaelic revival in his lecture, "The
Necessity of Deanglicizing the Irish
Nation" In season and out of season
he urged upon the people the necessity
Of reviving their native tongue, of
teaching it to their children and of pro-
ducing literature in Celtic. At first his
was voice crying in the wilderness.
The "nationaT system of education
which the English government had es-
tablished in 1882 ignored the ancient
language, practically penalizing it in
the schools. Parents, handicapped by
poverty, and eager that their children
should get on in the world, banished
the mother tongue from their homes,
believing that the language of the DOM
inant nation would give the younger
generation better weapon with which
to fight in the struggle for existence
Despite this, when DR.. Hyde began his
n n q oil 011 r,r~,,
still familiar with the Gaelic. Many
of those who spoke it could, however
neither read nor write it. Others than
he were interested and few Of these
kindred spirits founded the Gaelic
League with the avowed object Of saw
ing and restoring the old Irish to the
place it once held as the household and
everyday language of the Irish people.
This was in 1898, and DR.. Hyde, it's
first president, has seen the movement
grow from small beginnings into a
strong organization, working a pro-
found change in the mental outlook of
many of the Irish people and quicken
ing the national life on it's intellectual
and artistic sides.
While regarded as merely academic
at it's inception, the league has expand
ed into great national movement, un-
trammeled by politics and appealing to
jail Irish, regardless Of their creeds.
This is shown in the fact that DR.. Hyde
is himself a Protestant. Its methods
are varied. Public meetings, with lee
lures on the language, literature and
history are held. Organizers are sent
to Irish districts to interview the local
leaders and encourage them to work
for the habitual use of Irish. Ten of
these organizers are employed by the
league in Ireland, and they are assisted
by 200 travelling teachers. In Dublin
alone there are thirty branches of the
Gaelic League. There are nearly 900
branches throughout Ireland, with an
enrolled membership Of 100000. The
London branch numbers among its
members some of the most brilliant
writer's and artists of the day. Interest
in the movement has extended to the
United States and South America. The
number Of Irish schools in which the
language ds taught has advanced from
105 in 1899 to 5000 in 1905, a practical
result Of the leagues fight against the
English policy of exclusion of Irish
from the schools.
| Textbooks teaching the Languages
have been issued and the league in one
year sold more than $4,000 of these A
newspaper, "An Claidheamh Soluis
(The Sword Of Light, and a Gaelic
journal now have reading public cre-
lated by the league, which wishes not
only to extend the language as a spok-
en- tongue, but to cultivate a modern
literature in Irish. Pamphlets, essays
books, are constantly being published
under the auspices Of the league, and
during the last year 250,000 Of these
were sold from its main Offices alone
not mentioning other agencies. An an
nual festival, at which prizes are
awarded for the best poems, songs, es-
says, stories, plays and orations in
Gaelic, is held in May of each year