The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-07-13
AssAILs AN IRISH SHAME.

kuno Meyer, the Famous German
Philoloeist, Declares Trinity College
Foe of IreIand's Culture and Ma
tional Advancement - Always
Taught That Irish Were Barbarians
Before English Came.
Professor Kuno Meyer of the Liver
pool university England, is professor
| Of German and Celtic. He is a pro-
found scholar in Irish history as we'll
as in the Gaelic language, its literature
and philology. He is a thorough Ger
man, however, and received his edu-
cation in Gaelic at the German univer-
sity, which institutions have been prac-
tically alone among the universities of
Europe, until recently, in teaching the
Gaelic and promoting an interest in its
literature. In an address to the Irish
citizens of Liverpool he said:
The fate of the Irish language and
literature had been peculiarly tragic
and pathetic Studied and cherished by
comparatively few, its vast and rich
treasures had to a large extent re-
manned in manuscript, from which
from to time small installments had
been published. These publications,
often buried in learned periodicals, and
illus lIlicCCSSlDl6 10 the TedOlllS pun
lie, nor always accompanied by read
able translations, had hardly become
generally known.
Hence it is an easy task for those
who from political. racial and religious
prejudices were hostile to anything
that red0unded to the credit of Ireland
to call the every existence of this lit
erature into question. Thus they had
again and again had the disgusting
spectacle Of men who called themselves
Irishmen parading before the world as
men of learning and culture, either de-
nying that there was an Irish litera-
ture or branding it as unworthy of
study and preservation. Their argu-
ments were not worth discussing; they
were tainted at the source, a troubled
mixture of prejudice and ignorance"
The speaker here told an anecdote of
an Irish clergyman, a product of Trim
ity college. who was in the habit of
declaring, as is the fashion of that seat
Of learning. that the Irish before the
coming of the English were utter bar
barians. A lady of his acquaintance
having read O'Donovans translation of
the Instructions Of King Cormac,"
and being struck by the great refine
ment of thought and feeling in so early
a composition, and asked him how he
literature with his notion of the bar
barism of the ancient Irish, DO not
let that trouble you. madad." was the
that man O'Donovan was just |
another Mcpherson" Macpherson was |
l Highland schoolmaster who in 1860 !
Dalmed off A book of his own writing as
he Poems of Ossian, Celtic warrior of |
he third century.
IL was a deplorable state of general |
,ducation in Ireland, but above all the
neglect Of true learning and research /
t university had not progressed with |,
he times. that was responsible for
UGH absurdities. Up to a few years ago
t was only possible to obtain a train
act that no scholarly training in the
lnguage, literature. history and ar
haeology of Ireland could be obtained
I Trinity college was notorious
throughout the world.
1T was pitiful to think how many q
ne talent had thus been debarred
rom devoting itself to these studies
nd from advancing our knowledge of
II that concerned Ireland. But adj
ancement of knowledge was not to be
oped for from a university which re-
ulated its courses by such an anti
uated and artificial system as Trinity
)lleSe, leeulilg us SluueHlS OH nOlnlnS
ut ready-made knowledge. and salts
ed when they obtained certain num-
ar OF marks in tricky examinations
lat were the laughing stock of the
armed world.
Indeed, one of their professors had
ut recently declared that there could
: no room for Independent thought
thin a university. Such a system of
aching was not to be found at any
her learned institution in Christen-
I'M. Something like it might exist in /
hina, though he believed recent re-
rms there had been swept aside. In
inclusion DR.. Meyer expressed the
Dpe that when a national university L
lme to be established in Ireland it
ould bring the Irish student once
ore into contact with the living world L
science and scholarship"