The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-04-01


Irish Debt to Germany.
The debt that Ireland owes to Ger
man scholarship for what she has
gained so far in the direction Of re-
establishing her national independ-
ence is not generally recognized by
the world at large. German philologi-
cal and literary research has reveal
ed to the Irish the golden treasury of
their ancient speech. 1t has brought
to light literature and culture, the
fruits of civilization in far-off CEN
turtles before the night and blight of
British brutality fell upon that unhap-
by land.
It is true that native scholars had
discovered an occasional glimmer of
the glorious days, but it is due almost
wholly to Germans that indubitable
documentary proofs of the happier era
have come to light. 1t is through the
possession of these proofs that con-
quering faith in their race has sprung
| up in Irish hearts-a faith that has
carried them forward in triumph to
the treaty establishing the Irish Free
State.
For seven centuries, every means
known to the oppressor operated to
break the spirit of the Irish race. De-
feat in battle, confiscation of their
land, the creation of nation of serfs
out of joint owners of their native
soil, the delivery of the lands and the
| / sc 70
scourge of avaricious. unsympathetic
foreign landlords and masters, gross
in their ignorance of culture in any
sense, and especially of the culture
and the history of the people to whom
they were sent as curse.
! Education Banned in ireland.
In Ireland. education was banned by
rulers who had next 10 no education
| of their own. The penal laws placed
a price of G1O upon the head of a
lschoolmaster caught teaching ma
tive child Opportunities for educa-
ton were offered only to the children
or descendants of Englishmen resid-
ling within the pale or area of British
control. But even some of these, ma
ltives of Ireland, grew up TO be full
grown Irishmen, and it was found nee
essay in consequence to establish
lsuch institutions as Trinity college to
annul the natural law of the nation
IaliZation of natives. Until 1S28-less
than hundred years ago-seven'
leighths of the population of the island
were disfranchised, and the eloquent
lO'Connell, the author of the Catholic
Emancipation Act, had to go to the
lcontinent to receive an education I'm
lmediately after the passage of this
lact, the National" School System was
Established. 1t was designed by the
league with the devil, for a diabOlical
purpose. This system was deliberate
lily designed by that churchman to
wiring everything Irish out of the SOU
of the Irish child. No Irish history
lantedating 1859, the year OF the Brit
fish intrusion, was permitted to be
Taught, and the history subsequent to
THAT fell date was written by the spir
Iitual ancestors of the revisers of Amer
lican school histories" for the Amer
lican" Book Company.
/ The Irish children who attended the
national" schools were taught that
their people were barbarians until the
civilized English came and brought
with them the blessings of British law
They were taught to despise their owr
ancient and expressive language, anG
tablets were hung around their necks
Ion which were tailed the number Of
Irish words they had uttered during
the day. In the evening, each little
innocent was lifted upon the back Of
la fellow pupil and given stroke Of
a rawhide for every stroke found upoT
mis- tablet. In this way, the language
of their ancestors was literally whalet
out of the Irish children who attended
the Whately national schools.
Il Coincident with this debasement OF
1.-THE Irish soul, arose O'Curry anC
lO'Donovan, eminent self-taught Gaelic
scholars and antiquarians, who made
known the vast treasures of ancien1
Irish manuscripts that had escaped
the hands of the vandal invader. i
seemed unthinkable to even educat
ed Englishmen that the Cells ever pos
lsessed an ancient literature, and wher
lMacPherson's "Ossian' appeared, DR.
Johnson, the great cham OF litera
lture,' deliberately. closed his mint
against the thought.
Some German Scholars.
While the British were reyeling IL
Their proud ignorance, German schol
ars were busy delving into ancien
Irish manuscripts. Johann Caspe
lZeuss, turning over old tones in thu
monastery of ST. Gall, discovered
CLOSES in strange language writer
under Latin words in the texts. III,
found that those words were Irish
with true German tenacity and tire
less industry, he collected dictionar.
(which enabled him to translate man
luscr:pts written wholly in Irish. From
these he culled grammatical forms
prepared paradigms of verbs, declen
Itional forms of nouns and adjectives
etc., until he had evolved complete
Grammar of the language. His monu
mental work, Grammatical Celtica,
lin two large octave volumes of nearl.
{ II 200 pages, embracing not only thu
{ grammar of Irish, the most importan
) language of the Celtic group. but thu
) grammars Of Scottish Gaelic, Manx
! Cornish, Welsh and Breton, and which