The Irish standard., 1906-02-03


a quarter Of million people now
studying to read and write the Ian
guage (appiause). Six years ago. in
intermediate education only go pupils
passed in Irish: last year over two
thousand.
Six years ago no stranger coming to
Ireland would have seen anything to
tell him that he was not in a big, vul-
CARRIED English county. Now. in many
of the large towns, and in Dublin, the
capital, you see the names of the
streets put up and the names of the
roads, and the names Of the towns
printed in Irish capitals at the corner
OF the streets, and you know that you
are not in England (applause). Six
years ago, scarcely a paper printed a
word of our language. Now all the
national daily papers and very many
of the weekly papers print columns of
it. Six years ago, an Irish book was a
rarity that appeared only at intervals
of many months Now not a week goes
by but a new book printed in Irish ,s is-
sued from the press, and the distribu-
ton of books and pamphlets from our
own Office alone, not to speak of the
booksellers, has been something over a
quarter of million for every year of
he In fp1r (anr1a,,coN
Six years ago, if you spoke Irish as
we'll as Owen Roe and wrote it as well
as Godfrey Heating it would not be
worth Il traithnin, to you. Now you
cannot obtain a place under the Cor
poration of Dublin. under the Corpora
ton of Limerick. under the County
Councils Of Cork or Mayo, and a dozen
other places unless you know the Ian
guage of your country (great applause)
Six years ago if the products of Irish
hands and Irish brains were to find a
market they had to come back with the
hall mark of London or of Paris upon
them. Today we are rearing and rails
ing race of men whose one object
will be that the article that they buy
shall bear the hall mark of Made in
Ireland (applause); and the results
have been amazing.
We have enormously increased the
utput Of our weaving mills. We have
doubled the output of our ether facto-
ries. Other Industries in Ireland have
been helped immensely. In every big
town in Ireland there is an exhibition
of our local industries.
We have two training schools one
in Munster and one in Connacht, to
teach the people how to teach. We
have school of higher Irish learning
which Kuno Meyer and Professor
Strachan, the greatest masters of old
Irish and of phonetics in the world,
are teaching, and in which they are
doing what Trinity College, with all its
wealth, refused to do-training UP a
race of Irish scholars that will take
rank among the foremost scholars of
the world (applause). We have a fine
place of our own in Dublin. We have
only twenty paid officers. We have
a weekly paper and monthly maya
zine. We have organizers who work
night and day, Sunday and Monday, at
their hard task of persuading the peo-
pie to be Irish again, and who work
and sweat themselves to death at a
miserable wage that here you wo.ld
not offer to fifth-rate stenographer.
And they have a corps of two hundred
teachers with them. Wherever they
go they bring with them a Whit of an
Gent Ireland. They teach not the Ian
guage and the music alone, but the ira
ditions, the dances, and the history of
the race.
The Hope Of Nationhood.
To my mind the existence of Ireland
a nation. depends upon this-whether
we can keep those men doing the work
or whether We cannot keep them Zap
plause).
And now you will ask me how we
manage all this. Where do we get the
money for it? Well, it has not been
out of the pockets of the great or of
the rich in Ireland, assure you. Who
was it that gave us our first legacy,
more than five years ago? Who was
it that saw floating before his dying
eye, as it were, the vision Of an Irish
nation? Who but a hard working gun
smith, Patrick Mullins. here in New
York (applause). He left us by his
will ten thousand dollars, and never
before did Ireland get, and never again
will she get, as much value for money
received. And desire here, on behalf
of every Gael in Ireland, to thank Pat
rick Ford and the Irish World Zap
plause): to thank John Dewey and The
Gaelic American applause and
cheers): to thank that magnificent
body of Irishmen, the Ancient Order of
Hibernians and to thank one and all,
papers and societies and individuals,
who have tried to assist us in the hour
of our weakness.
Now we make an appeal every year
to our fellow-countrymen, during the
week in which falls st. Patrick's Day,
and our countrymen contribute, almost
t..