The Irish standard., 1916-06-17
PROTEST AGAINST
mACnEILL ARREST.
American Scholars Arrange to Secure
Release Of Noted Irish Scholar Re-
Gently Sentenced.
Interest Of Americans Due to ReaIiza-
Known 40 Authority on Celtic Law.

certain scholars In American uni.
versities are arranging to make pro.
test against the sentence imposed
upon John MacNeill, Professor of
Farley Irish History in the National
University at Dublin. Professor Mac
Neill has been sentenced to imprison.
ment for life by the military authori-
ties in Ireland for alleged completely
in the recent insurrection.
The interest of the American schol-
ars is due to the fact that Professor
MacNeill's studies have come to be
regarded as valuable, not merely in
connection with Irish history, but in
connection with early European his
tory generally. It is now known that
the study of the Celtic polity, the Gel
tic law, Celtic military organization,
mythology and romance elucidate
the conditions of pre-Roman Europe.
Professor MacNeill is acknowledged
to be the most erudite and most ac-
tive scholar in the field of such
studies.
For years he has been celebrating
a revolutionary theory of Farley Irish
History. That theory is based upon
his exhaustive studies of the geneol-
ogies of the historic Irish clans. He
has traced the geneologies back until
he has found, approximately at the
same period with each of the clans,
an ancestor who can be identified as
a Celtic god humanized. With this
ancestry the period for the study Of
actual Irish history begins. Profess
sor MacNeill does not place the Pc
riod much before the time of st. Pat
rick. He has made a remarkable
searching criticism of the traditions
that are placed beyond that period.
He shows very cogent reasons for re.
garding these traditions as a literary
creation-the creation of the acad.
emies attached to the Milesian courts,
made in the interest of Milesian as
tendency over other races in Ireland.
The Milesians were the people who
gave the historic kings to ireland,
But the most ancient monuments of
Irish literature-the Ulster Epic Tale,
"The Cattle Spoil of Cooley"-and the
Leinster saga. connected with Finn
MacCumbal were made by different
peoples who were longer in Ireland
than the Milesian clans, who after.
wards came to be dominant in the
country.
This revolutionary view of Irish his
tory was very strikingly put forward
in the lectures delivered by Professor
MacNeill in the National University
and in the remarkable introduction
to his edition of the book of poems
connected with the hero, Finn, pub.
lished by the Irish Texts society
about eight years ago.-"Dunaire
Finn" (The Poem Book of Finn).
In all these historic studies Profes
sor MacNeill throws light upon the
conditions of other civilizations in
early Europe, upon the political and
military organization of the Latin
people, for instance. At later pc
riod his studies elucidate points in
Scottish and Scandinavian history
He was sent by the National Univer
sity to Germany to purchase the great
Celtic library accumulated by the
late Professor Windisch.
Professor MacNeill was first ir
Irish public life as vice president o.
the Gaelic League. AS an Ulster
Catholic he became very concerned
about the arming of Sir Edward Car