The Irish standard., 1906-02-03

Irish I'm speaking" (laughter). mo. a
chuisle." said !, 1T is not Irish you
are speaking" Then this is how
spoke it ever!" says he. That meant
that poor little boy coming out of Ma
tional School was 30 denseiy. darkly
and brutally ignorant that he did not
know that was speaking to him in one
language and he was answering me In
another. That is what passes for
Government education in Ireland, but 1t
won't pass in future for Government
education, or for any kind of education
(applause).
remember another day, in the Coun-
ty of Sligo, the first Of these instances
happened in Galway, the second IT,
Mayo, and this in Sligo. l went into a
house to wait for train and there was
a pretty little girl at the fireside, and
1 sat down on Creepy stool and be-
gan to talk to her, and, after her first
shyness, she began talking Irish very
nicely to me. and we were having
III HlLlp ueQM uonesleAuoo lueseold
tie unwaShed redheaded brother stuck
in his nose. out of a door, and he cock
ed his nose at her and said Gmitating).
and not a word could get out of Mary
from that time on Qaughter). You
laugh. gentlemen, and, God forgive me.
l laughed, too; but when l went home
and thought over it, swear to you that
l cried, because l saw 1t was the TRACE
dy of nation in nutshell (applause).
! passed through the County Galway
a few months ago, and came across a
man who could neither read nor write
nor speak English (applause). Quite
right, gentlemen; 1t was all his luck.
An ordinary English tourist would put
that man down rs a mere brute; but
what mind that man had! What a
memory! WHAT Il wealth of song! What
a fund Of story! What a variety of in
formation! wrote down from him at
hundred lines never before printed or
heard of! (Applause.)
He had a marvellous fund of folk
tale, remainders Of Ossianic lays, of re-
ligious poems. of songs. PAROLES, prov
erbs--in word, everything that could
go to enrich the mind and the moral
fIrrn oil
him! And what were we going to re-
place 1t with in his son? We were go
ing to replace it with the Third Read
ing Book, and I would as soon have
lump of ashes choked down my
throat as the Third Reading Book of
the National Schools. (Applause.)
Now the Gaelic League is engaged
upon grand, reconstructive policy, the
policy Of creating a new nation upon
the old lines, and before we can build
up, it is necessary for us to place our
finger on the blots.
Well, first, there is the language
question of which 1 have spoken; but
a number of other things hang from
that language question. And first,
strangely enough, comes the question
of our own names. 1t has always SEEM
ed to me that a mans own name is
part and parcel of himself. am quite
sure that If you changed my name to-
morrow l would feel that was changed
myself; l would not understand it. And
yet, within the last sixty or seventy
years. Irishmen undergoing this awful
process of national extiction have been
greedy to change their honorable, an
Gent. proud Milesian names into some
abominable monosyllable because it
sounded like something English Some
of the O'Connors became Conyers: the
MacRorys. Rogers; the O'Donnells,
Daniels: the McCarthys, Carriers, and
so on.
Take our music. After all, the bag
pipes. though you may not love it's
sound, was an artistic Instrument; no
man, but an artist could play upon it.
The violin is an artistic instrument: no
man without soft touch, fine ear,
and artistic feeling can play upon the
violin. The violin and the bagpipes
were In every parish when was young.
Where are they to-day? What has taxi
en- their place? What grand, artistic
instruments have taken the place of the
bagpipes and the violin? Here they are
Initiates the playing OF the ACCORDION
and the concertina). cloud laughter.)
Or, If 1t isn't that, then this has taken
Its place Initiates the motion of play
Ing the hand organ). (Renewed laugh
ter and applause.) That is called, I
suppose. being an Irish nation. All!
where Is the venerable custodian Of
1reland's song and music, the man who
always commanded welcome at the
PEASANTS fireside as he trudged through
the bogs and over the mountains and
through the woods Of the country? He
sleeps with his green bag beside him
under the green sward. In his place
have come upon the village. stage that
| quintessence Of all vulgarity and all
abomination, known throughout the
world as 1.-The stage Irishman." Gen.
tlemen. your action in dealing with that
monster gave me greater qualification
! a nd {,,o0