The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-04-01
Frederick Haskh's Letter
Reestablisting the Irish Language.
Especial Correspondence Of sae Argus.l
rashington. d. G march 81

washington, D. C., March 81
| Ireland is talking Irish nowadays.
THE Irish Free State conducts bus
| iness largely in the old Gaelic
tongue. All of the members OF the
i Dail Eireann speak Irish. accord
! ing to information here. The gov
ernment letterheads are printed in
Irish, and even when the letters
are written in English. the saluta-
ton is "a cara'-my Dear.
TO show that the language is in
common use. Irish speakers at meet
ings in this country often open
their talks with a few words in
Gaelic. When De Valera held his
meetings here he liked to do this,
eyen though scarcely anyone IN the
| audience could understand the
Gaelic words of greeting.
Several years ago it was estima-
ted that one-sixth of the Irish PEG.
nile spoke the native tongue, and
the proportion is growing steadily.
/ This is a triumph for a language
which was a medium for literature
10 centuries ago, and then dropped
back almost out of sight. Only tbs
peasants in some of the Irish vii
lagos chung to the pleasing twist Oh
the Gaelic words, and for them II
was the language of the fireside-
The vocabulary which remained IN
use was made up chiefly of words
describing the life of kitchen. farm
and courtship, and some of the
quaint language of the Celtic fairy
lore; so that George Moore sum
med up Irish as q wonderful l2n-
guage that had not been to sehooL
Of late years, when Irish had De.
Egun to be revived in the cities Oh
ireland, the old-fashioned state Vi
| the language has been apparent
There were On equivalents for such
modern contrivances as the auto
mobile, trains, or telephones, ana
| it has been necessary to coin words
to bring up to date the vocabulary
which is so rich in words OF emo
ton and affection.
Not to Supplant English.
Gaelic is not taking the place OF
English. nor is there any prospect
| of its doing so. The Irish people
will undoubtedly continue TO speak
English. because it is necessary
for communication in the cities
| The status of the language can
probably be compared best 10 ene
status of French in soutneaSteiL
Canada. In the province OF Queoe'
French is widely spoken, Dut ENG
Iish is also understood almost eF'
erywhere. The two languages az
fused together, signs on streels al,
! shops being in both tongues: DIV
are taught in the schools. lrisn 1
annroaching this state. 1t IS Delni
Taught in the elementary schools
and for some years the Natlona
University of ireland has require
all students enterting to nave
| knowledge of the language.
There are two reasons why u
Irish people want to speak their nd
tive tongue. One is that it is thel
heritage, an ancient speech-th
oldest language now spoken-Wn1iicl
has somehow been kept anss
through centuries Of Engiish aoin,
lination. 1t has survived peoaUoe
the native Irish OF the peasant
class loved it's brogue and It's mu-
sic They chung to it in many dis
+ricts even when the schools taught
only English to the children. the
consequence was that in sucn
nIaces the children got very little
benefit out of their brief schooling
in the strange English tongue:
They returned home with a suIted
knowledge of reading and writing IN
English and continued talking the
local dialect without attempts at
higher education.
The Irish affection for Gaelic is
at the root a matter of paulouc
sentiment. They know that CEN