The Irish standard., 1912-07-20
URGES THE STUDY OF
IRISH LANGUAGE
Bishop O'Donnell Deplores the Lack
of Interest in the Language
of the Gael.
Bids his People to Renew Their
Efforts to Popularize Their
Native Tongue.
Says Those Who Know Celtic have
an Advantage in Speaking
English as Well.

The sixth annual Feis Thirchonaill
which was recently held at Rathmul-
Ian was one of the largest assem- /,
years. The Feis was first initiated by
Bishop O'Donnell of Rapho who has
deep and abiding interest in the re-
vival OF the Irish language. In ad-
dressing the gathering Bishop O'Don-
nell said:
More than once before I saw tine|
gatherings in Rathmulan, but never.
l venture to say, in recent times, was
there any assemblage here to equal
the splendid gathering which we wit
ness today. The size of the meeting
is a measure of it's Importance, a!
proof of your resolve to preserve your
language and uphold your ancient
customs. This is a Day of Hope for
both sides of the Swily. This beau
tiful inland sea saw some of the sad
ture OF Red Hugh and the Flight of
the Earls are forever associated with
Rathmullan. On both occasions the
hope of Ireland vanished ! over the
waters of Lough Swilly. But not less
sad than these departures was the
gradual departure of the language OF
oh
The Language Still Lives.
Well, We live In times when what
appeared to be lost causes are COM
ing right again, and our purpose here
is to make the splendid language of
the Clansmen of O'Doherty resound
again from Inch to Knockalla. Our
native tongue has not been altogether
swept into the ocean from Swilly's
banks. At the source of the river there
is a sturdy Irish-speaking population,
and near the mouth of the Lough,
Fanad and Glenvar, and Urris never
gave up the native speech. Through
out Killygavan and Tullyferri there
are many households in which one or
more members can converse in Irish.
Your teachers in this parish, / am
glad to say, teach Irish in the schools,
and Your priests not only know the
language, but they love to use it and
to encourage their people to speak it.
Why should we not have Cram
Etthne, with it's Irish-speaking hour
firmly established in every family?
Why should we not have Irish
taught in every one of our schools?
Surely there is everything to encour-
age us in this parish. 1 do not know
today any one argument which I
could use of more convincing kind
than that which fell under your own
observation a while ago when you
and I heard from young priest who
is a child of this parish one OF the
most beautiful sermons, If not the
most beautiful, we heard in our day
in Irish.
Advantage in Knowing Irish.
An Irishman speaks English far bet
ter If he knows Irish. Why does your
! parish priest speak English so we'll?
Because he was nursed in Irish by a
good grandmother who thought the
language of his forefathers good
enough for him. A few weeks ago I
crossed the Swilly in a motor boat
from Buncrana to Rathmullan. The
men in charge of that boat were Cola
islanders of splendid muscle and
splendid speech. They spoke English
remarkably we'll. But their boat Ian
guage was the Gaelic tongue, power
full, rich and sweet 1 know some Of
the Swilly fishermen are equally mas
ters of the Celtic tongue. I wish they
all were. wish everyone here was
Few things, If any, could be SO good
to train our minds and educate Us to
advantage. On a day like this Irish
| should be on every tongue that can
use it. And not merely on day like
this, but every day when we meet
or the road, in the market or in the
effort is being made to spread the
Irish tongue in districts where the
language is no longer spoken.
Appeal to Hibernians.
: Here we can still build an edifice
from the foundation. We can speak