The Irish standard., 1910-12-31
Rev. Dr.. HOGAN and Irish Literature.

E2ssssSsssSssSsssSss ssssssssssSssSSss
There are spots on the sun but they
Go not interfere with the magnificent
volume of its brightness. Only those
5 who look, may find them, says The
Monitor.
So there are some defects in the
wonderful Catholic Encyclopedia
which is spreading before the world
it's tribute of learning and truth. Here
and there, the critics have found some
flaws.
The learned editor of the Irish Ec-
clesiastical Record, the Rev. DR.. Ho-
gan, observes serious faults In the
Encyclopedias article on Irish Liter
ature." And it is unfortunate that 1t
should be so and entirely unneces-
sary. The disappointing treatment of
fine subject comes altogether from
the writer who was chosen to do the
work DR.. Douglas Hyde, the author
of the Encyclopedias article, while
thoroughly qualified from the view
point of Irish scholarship, has closed
his eyes to the Irish Catholic writer's
and their literature and given undue
prominence to the Protestants and
infidels-a grave defect in a volume
which is specially consecrating itself
to the development of the Catholic
side of things. The Catholic Irish
are certainly enough neglected and
overlooked without receiving such
treatment from a work for which
their generous subscriptions are main
ly paying.
We quote at some length from Rev.
DIR. Hogan's criticism:
mo Catholic Irishman was good
enough for the editors to write for
them on the subject of Irish Litera-
ture.' They must get a Protestant
to do this work for them. The article
is illustrated by about a dozen por.
traits, and ten of these are Protest
ants. Amongst them we find the old
renegade, Carleton, who lampooned
the peasantry from which he sprung,
and the clergy and practices of the
Church he abandoned. We also find
Charles Lever, who, in Harry Lor.
requer, Jack Hinton, and elsewhere
represent the Catholic clergy as dis
honest, immoral. and drunken sots.
DR.. Douglas Hyde, the writer of the
article, is undoubtedly a liberal
teresting work on Irish Literature;
but Catholic Encyclopedia is not
supposed to be nondescript vehicle
of thought, to bring Protestant litera'
t,lre to the front and throw Catholic
literature in the background. Here
we find not word about Viscount
raafe, DR.. Curry, Charles O'Conor
Thomas Wyse, or many distinctively
Catholic writers of the Penal Days
In the account of the Gaelic league
not word, generous or otherwise, Of
Eugene O'Growney, the Dubrowski oil
the Gaelic movement. All sorts Of
nonentities are mentioned; but the
genial and kindly priest, who made
it, while he lived, a genial and kind
ly movement, is left In the shade Il
was thus that Eugene O'Curry, with
out whose labors there would be NJ
language movement today, was treat
ed in his own time. On the othel
hand, we get enthusiastic accounts O
the Abbey Theater' and it's founders
and promoters-W. B. Yeats, Lad!
Gregory, George Russell, Mr.. Synge
and George Bernard Shaw. The Cath
olics who have helped the Able.
Theater get the treatment they de
serve.
"Now, we do not, we hope, belon
to Swift's category of
Dull divines, who look with am
ious eyes
On every genius that attempts t
rise,
And pausing DER \ pipe wit
doubtful nod,
Gives hints that poets ne'er BIZ
lieve in Cod
There are plenty OF poets who be
lieve in God, and very many, too, who
although they do not belong to tn
Catholic Church, have said and wri
4" ten beautiful things of it; bu
amongst them l do not think there
single one of the prominent person
mentioned in connection with tn
Abbey Theater. On the contrary, the
seem to bear it continuous grudg,
and it looks as if they longed to a.
complish by roundabout turnin
movements what their kindly pre-