Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-26

now the true national instrument of Ire
land. Yet so much influence has the
Gaelic revival had that one firm in Dublin
Is doing a very good business in the manu-
facture of harps. Both the harp and the
pipe are often heard at the league meet
ings in New York when players worthy Of
the instruments can be found.
Often at the entertainments of the
various societies in New York there will
be talks on old Irish customs by those
who knew them well in their youth. The
typical Irish m-erryrnakings have now lost
much of their vitality through increasing
English intercourse. But dancing at the
crossroads is still to be found in the rural
districts.
A few colleens and young men meet at
a crossroads of a summer evening, not by
invitation, but merely on the chance that
dancing will be going on. They send to.
some neighborlng house for a fiddler or
piper, and the dancing begins. Others
arrive, and often they foot it till the gray
dawn is breaking. They dance on the road,
which is hard with crushed limestone and
level as a floor.
The Irish revival aims to revive the ma
tive cottage industries OF the island, of
which one, the lacemaking, sever died out.
But its most interesting phase Is perhaps
the opening up of a whole unknown slitera-
ture. Thousands of manuscripts in tho
Irish tongue, full of ancient tales and folk
lore, exist in the Dublin museum and the
library of Trinity college. which are being
printed as fast as money can be had to
do 1t.
Revival In Literature.
The. revival has also started the produc-
ton of a modern Irish literature. One aged
priest in south Ireland, Peter O'Leary, who
did not begin to write till he was past 20,
has since then put out several plays and
novels in Irish, beside textbooks and d
flood of articles; and all through Ireland
people who have never seen an English
play in their lives have taken to writing
and acting little plays in Irish, a spontane-
Gus rise of a peoples drama.
The same thing is being done from time
to time in the Gaelic societies Of New
York. II is the investigation OF the ancient
literature and art OF ireland which attracts
the interest of foreign scholars. ireland
was the only country in Europe which de-
veloped a civilization absolutely uninflu.
enced by that Of the Roman empire. Its
relics are of the same interest to scholars
as would be those Of an insulated lndiar
tribe which had developed totally un.
touched by American influence.
Some OF the Irish folktales rescued from
the manuscripts are exceedingly quaint ant
beautiful. There is that Of Oisin, for in,
stance, the son Of Finn, who is that sam,
Ossian who figures in Scottish folklore
although the Irish hero's name is pro
i. nounced "Oshecn."
Otkln encountered a beautiful lady,
stranger, whom he loved very much. Sh,
asked him to go away with her to he
fathers country, which lay far beyond tn,
, western sea. He conscnting, she gave hin
a splendid white horse, on which the!
4 both rodS in safety over the waves.
E In the Land Of Youth.
The lady's country was rir-na-nog, tn
Land of Youth. aud her father was kin
a OF II and she its princess. Oisin had re
mained there but a little while. so n
thought, when he grew homesick an
10 wished to return TO Ireland for a wish
o Long the lady weDt and pleaded to dis
( suade him. but when she saw he wa
; determined she charged him TO travel o
J. the white horse and never set foot on On
e soil Of ireland less sore mishap shoul
d befall him.
8 So he came riding back to Tara, whic
was the ancient palace OF the Irish kinE
In county Meath. And 10 his sad bC
wilderment he found It all dismantled an
q in ruins.
Riding on, puzzled and lonely, he cam
u TO a field where men were trying to n
Is a great stone. oisin was famed for h