The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-06-10

lug IL WAS dlIci tuO lOi60I1ul SllSuC0
that fell on the language during the
nineteenth century to hear the patriot
Pierce tesselate his rich utterances
with fragments from the old Gaelic
poets and writer's! Not that the Par.
liamentary Party as such had any an
tagonism to the language but they
failed to sense the secret connection
between it and nationality. If the
tongue is Irish the soul must be Irish
also. They would not see that the ex-
tension of the language and kindred
movements spelled the doom Of SO.
called Irish Imperialism. English
statesmen, however, more far-seeing
than "our Heroes" saw its drift, and
interpreted Alright the signs of the
times. Tyranny is ever suspicious and
jealous Of innovation. The rise and
spread of the Gaelic League produced
a profound irritation in the mind of
John Bull. Hence from its very incep-
tion it was subjected to persevering
series of petty prosecutions. To speak
Irish to an English official, to look
at a policeman with "a humbugging
sort of smile" Gan Irish smile of
course) to inscribe ones name in Irish
on donkey-cart, to sign checks and
postal-orders in the language-all this
was more or less "lese Majestic" in
the eyes of the authorities. But the
enthusiasm of the Gaelic Leaguers
overbore all difficulties and with the
coming of DR.. Hyde to this country in
1906, the movement spread from Dub.
lin to San Francisco, and the sinews
of war were assured.
The Irish in America supported the
Gaelic League because they felt, how
ever dimly, that it BODIED no good for
British Imperialism. Many of them
did not understand the relation be-
tween syntax and nationhood, between
the primers of O'Growney and the
bandoliers of the Volunteers. The
philosophy of the language had first to
be elaborated. Language is the soul
Of a nation. Thought and speech are
inseparable. AS a man thinks so will
he act. If the mind be Irish the out
look must needs be Irish also. All
this, though now commonplace, was
new decade ago to the great masses
of our people; and the fact that the
! Irish in America Immediately grasped
it's significance shows how true is
their instinct and how fixed their
heart in the direction of Liberty.
Out of the Gaelic League sprang the
Sim Fem movement. Sim Fein
means yourselves" or Self-Reliance.
Their program was one of national re-
Mobilization along industrial and eco.
nomic lines. To build anew the de-
cayed industries of the country, to Gre
| ate new ones, to stop emigration, to
develop the resources of the country,
to reap scientifically the teeming har-
vests of her rivers, her lakes, and
her seas-this was brave ideal. AS
regards England on the other hand,
their motto was that of Dean Swift:
Burn everything from England except
the GOALS" 1t was natural that pro.
gram of this kind should broaden out
into the political field, and it was in
evitable too that they would clash
with the professional politicians
Since the death of Parnell these latter
had held the field unchallenged and
uncriticised. Their word was law
from Malin Head to Cape Clear. They
taught the people fix their eyes upon
Westminster and upon themselves in
it. No longer was the nation to gaze
out westward over the highways OF
the ocean for the wine from the
Royal Pope" They were to look east
ward to London of the Sassenach fol
paltry aims doled out by contemp
| tOus Parliament. But here was a
group of young men who taught that
Westminster was not Ireland or part
thereof, and that to remove the center
of gravity of the national life from
| Ireland itself, and fix it in the enc
my's capital was fatal to the national
| idea. 1t is true that the quarrel be
tween John Redmond and the Sim