The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-11-18

1t was not without compelling cause
that County Kerry-our islands south
western cornerstone-was long ago
named the Kingdom, says Seamas Nc
Manus in Catholic Banner and Times.
Even in these republican days 1T can
produce it's king. For years past a re-
turned Irish American has been both
lord high admiral of the Kerry lays
and king also. He refused to pay rent
fees or taxes to the British govern
ment. SO he built his own househoat
and in it lives with his family, and
cruises around the coasts, defying the
landlord and the tax collector. Lately,
great attention was attracted to him
by the publication of a sketch in the
Dublin papers and photos of himself
and his houseboat. He was, amongst
other things, a member of the New
York police force.
Kerry was a wonderful place always.
In the penal days, when a paternal
government gave you five pounds for
the head of a wolf, or the head Of
schoolmaster, or the head of priest,
indifferently, the mountains of kerry
harbored more and better schoolmas-
ters than were to be found in any
other tract of the same extent in Ire
land. Then it was, though education
was banned by law, the poorest boys In
Kerry often had a knowledge of the
classics that would make boys of Har-
ward presently green with envy. Some
one in the Irish papers was recently
reminding us of the time when one
Kerry man sold his COW to another
Kerry man in Greek. 1 have heard an
intelligent old man, in the heart of
our Donegal mountains tell how his
grandfather used to speak to him OF
time when at a select dinner party
amongst these mountains-the priest
the schoolmaster, and the more ccm-
Portable class of mountaineers being
present-the conversation was carried
on in Latin.
The cultivation Of the classics died
out with the head schoolmaster of our
Donegal mountains. The cultivation OF
our own Irish language has now, OF
course, taken it's place. Evidently
the government intends that the re-
vival of the Gaelic shall get a quick
and great impetus, for already they are
Indirectly beginning to ban it. II
NAV sound startling to Americans, and
even to Irish Americans, to know that
today there are, here in Ireland, men
suffering in Jail for using their own
language; and other men having theil
goods seized and sold in penalty fol
the same crime. 1t is now crime
fixed first by the ordinary courts an6
later by the high courts, to set dowr
your name in the Irish language or
your cart. The first man to go to jai
for this was Mac Seonin of Roscom-
mon. who was taken to Sligo Jail. AL.
derman Cole, of Dublin, was the frs
man to have his goods distrained ant
sold by auction for the same morta
effense.
This will seem hardly believable tt
Americans, but if they lived some time
in Ireland they would be prepared tt
believe anything. If such penaliizns
of the language of the country oc'
CURED in Poland or in Finland tn,
great British public would blaze witt
Indignation; the London Times wcult
thunder against the tyrant Czar ant
every newspaper in the empire would
re-echo the thunder. The American
press, too, would dislocate itself in thu
endeavor to give utterance to scare
heads for relief of it's surcharged feel
ings. Yet we have it going on in Ire
land, and so accustomed are we t.
British law, as in Ireland interpreted
that the announcement in the press o
the failing of Mac Seonin gets much thu
same space as Another Accident OF
the Quays."
The Gaelic revival is not the onl!
thing that is presently supplying muci
needed dodgers for the big, empty jail
Of Ireland. The anti-recruiting cam