The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-08-09
STATE REPORT ON
IRISH HISTORY
Rev. Patrick McDermott, Massena,
Iowa, Presents an Interesting
Account Of Work in
This State.
STUDY BEING FosTERED
Hibernians Are EndeavorIng to Gre
ate Interest In the Work.
Scholarships Are
Given.

Irish history. Rev. Patrick McDer-
mott of Massena. Iowa, is state chair
man of Iowa history and his report,
presented at the convention yester-
day afternoon, covering the work in
this state during the past two years.
is given below. Scholarships are given
to st. Ambrose at Davenport for ex-
cellence in this study and Keokuk
students have received these honors
in the past SO that the report will
no doubt be of considerable local in
terest. 1t follows:
Report on Irish History.
To the officers and delegates Of the
seventeenth biennial state convention
of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Of
Iowa:
Gentlemen and brothers;
It is my privilege and pleasure, as
your state chairman of the Irish His
tory committee, to present my third
biennial report on the movement I'M
dertaken by our order in this state of
Iowa for the due recognition Of the
study Of Irish History in our parochial
schools, academies and colleges. Dur
ing our eight years Of leadership in
this important work manifest pro-
gress has been made. Slowly but
surely we are successfully urging the
cause of Irish history. When we
realize that but a few years ago such
a worthy cause was practically un-
known, that little attention was given
to the study Of Irish history in the
! school, in the home and at our dfvis.
ion meetings, we'll may we. pause and
congratulate ourselves that the story
of the isle Of saints and scholars Is
now being popularized. Heretofore
scant attention was given the subject.
Now It Is being discussed at our meet
ings, it is being talked in our homes
and it is being studied in our schools.
At our meetings 1T is part of our reg
ular order of business to have chap
ter read or q talk given on some phase
or topic Of Irish history. True, at
times such order of business is passed
over silently and quickly with the
stereotyped well, let that go this
time" but, brothers, 1t is part and
parcel Of our work and we should not
allow the silent treatment to become
habit. In our homes the subject Of
Irish history has aroused considerable
attention. And 1t is we'll for 1t is
there our Irish-American children will
fully and truly learn to appreciate the
glories of Ireland. But in the schools
especially we are making progress.
There we are reducing the question to-
a systematic comprehensive study.
We are frank to confess 1t has been
an uphill fight yet nothing daunted
we are gaining ground. According to
statistics as had in my Office there
are in this state twenty-four parochial
schools, two academies and one col
lege where Irish history is being rec
ognized in one form or other. When
we consider how the schools are labor
ing under a very heavy curriculum. We
are eminently satisfied so far with the
results. Our system of state scholar.
ships have been great inducement
to the schools in taking up the study.
To my mind these state scholarships,
valued at $3.50 each year, have been
a good investment and further have
made ample returns. Last May we
had thirty candidates enter the state
contest whilst twenty-five boys and
girls actually took the examination.
The Irish history examining commit
tee had set forth a list of thirty ques-
tons from which ten were taken as
the test During the year these thirty
questions we're studied by the differ
ent candidates and judging from the
! papers written on the basis of ten
| questions, creditable progress has
surely been made at least by these
twenty-five contestants in the study of
Irish history.