The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-01-02

tAaL io'Leleu IIle NlelIoIy Va ItlS pt'SI
and kelt alive the spirit Of nationality
in the Irish people, endeavored to eX-
tirpate the language and literature in
extricably entwined with the stirring
recollections and heroic traditions of
freedom loving, emotional, imagina.
tive and intellectual race Even after
the penal laws We're repealed and the
Catholic Emancipation achieved, Eng
land still continued her effcrt to angli-
cize the speech, the thought, and the
feelings of the SUBJECT people. In he
system of national schools inauguratei
in 1882 it was strictly forbidden to
teach anything in the nature of Irish
history, and the pupils wer. brutally
ridiculed, punished and prosecuted for
using the language of their home and
their parents, and that, too, the "purest
and least spoiled" of all the great 1ndo-
European family of languages which
had f1ourished for thousands of years
in far off Ireland y the ;u.....n;l -Thule Of
European lands. So Ear did this anti
national campaign proceed and sue
ceed that twenty years ago only an in
significant remnant of the nation re-
mained who could speak their native
tongue. .... q.
| Meanwhile happier influences had be-
gun to be felt. The Romantic move
ment had set in all over. Europe. The
English and Irish nations came within
the circle Of the new ideas. Men look
Led to the past with larger synpathies
and wider horizons. The historical
method was coming to be used in scieA-
tific Investigations. Folklore, myth
ology and .ethnology were cultivated
with unwonte1 I zeal and Irish history
offered a. fascinating dell for such in
quiries. The old manuscripts explored
for light on these pursuits We're ere
long found to possess raro intrinsic
literary merit. They Were studied for
their own sake, and by translation and
appreciative exposition brought within
the ken CT non Irish scholars.
It was soon revealed that the mag
nificent poems of Ossian could no lon
ger be considered modern literary
fabrication, but genuine, if only half
articulate, voices from the great deep
of ancient Celtic literary life. Great as
these poems were they we're no more
than the foam or the bubbles on the
mighty ocean that lay beneath.
Mathew Arnold, the great critic, ex-
patiated on the subtle beauty, the
magic and the loveliness of Celtic
sentiment. Thackeray dwelt upon the
vivid, f1esh-and- blood character Il the
Celtic heroic sagas. Ruskin expressed
his appreciation of the wit and art
and genius of the Irish people,. a
group Of eminent Gaelic scholars, like
O'Curry; O'Grady, ODonovan, Fer
guson, Stokes, Petrie, OHagan ard
others studied Irish antiquities, Irish
history, Irish language and literature;
and with commanding abilities maj
known the value and extent Of their
discoveries. And an illustrious Ter
man scholar is responsible for the aus
sertion that there are sufficient literary
remains in the Celtic manuscripts to
fill thousand large and closely n'..
ed volumes, and that much of this is
OF such merit as to compare fav.r-
ably with the literature of ancient
Greece in spirit, richness and artistic
structure.
New force was added to this Gaelic
movement by the earnest and patriotic
writer's of the Young Ireland school.
Gifted men like Davis, Mitchell, Duefv
and dozens of others turned the us
o. millions Of their countrymen to the
ancient glories Of their race. All
these influences had done their WORK
vixen the whole Irish nation suffered
a great and bitter disappointment on
Ps,rnelrs failure to wrest Home Rule