New Britain herald., 1927-02-23

many stations over the continent of
Europe from which the Irish were
centres of intellectual and civilizins
| influence.
Their education was not narrow
II had for its basis the scripture
and the three great languages, He
brew, Greek and Latin. The scrip
lures are written from SO close to
the heart of human nature because
they have SO much OF the divine in
them that it matters not what Ian
guage they are translated into, they
make literature in that language.
Some of the greatest literature in all
the languages is concerned with
TRANSACTIONS of the scripture. He
brew and Greek AMI Latin well
studied. will give breadth and depth
of intelligence if anything will.
AT home in Ireland the Irish were
doing a series Of things that give
them a place forever in the history
of civilization. First they added
rhyme to poetry. If you think for
q moment what our literature would
be without rhyme in poetry, you will
be able to understand what pre-
ciouS invention this was that the
Irish made. This puts music into
speech. 1t has often been said that
Irish is a very musical language.
Indeed one great Irish scholar used
to say that he was quite sure that
the language spoken by Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden was Irish
because there are so many sooth-
ing sounds in it that it is the only
language in which love can be pro-
: perly made He used to add too that
I there was another language spoken
in the Garden of Eden and you
could tell what that other language
was and who spoke it from the num-
, Der of kissing sounds there are in
English.
Island of Saints
NO wonder that we learn that in
/ education the Irish were the leaders
| of their day and that Ireland was
called the island Of saints and OF
scholars not by the Irish them
selves but by the continental people
so many of whose young folks flock
ed to have the advantage of the
I Irish schools. Just as soon as Ire
land became Christian, 1t became
! scholarly. 1t is sometimes said that
the Christian church was afraid of
education, fearful lest it should lead
its children astray. The fathers Of
the church or some of them at least
are said to have declared that the
| ignorant get to heaven more readily
and more surely than the educated.
| Undoubtedly the simple, humble, IN
educated, find it in their hearts to
believe in Christianity easier than the
| sophisticated intelligentsia who
think they know so much more than
they really do. However, that may
| be, one thing Is sure that just as
| soon as Ireland became Christian
schools were opened up all over the
| land and Ireland became the great
| educational center of the world of
that day.
Nor was education limited only
to the men. When st. Patrick
founded his great school at Armagh
which was to be an cxemplar for
so many other schools, st. Bridget
with his counsel and advice estab-
lished her school at Kildare where
women were to secure their oppor-
tunities for education. Before her
death there are said to have been
hundreds of young women studying
at Kildare and many thousands of
them came during the existence of
the school. There was a copy of
+ the Scriptures at Kildare in Gerald
the Welshman's time which he
thought the most beautiful book in
the world. 1t was not the Book Of
I<ells and Gerald may have seen the
Book of Kells and thought the Book
of Kildare even finer. Gerald had
wandered all over Europe so that
| his opinion on this subject is worth
something. THE ADDRESSES of Kildare
were superiors of community OF
men as well as of women. st. Hill
das abbey at Witty in England fol-
lowing the same tradition was of a
similar kind with men and women
| under the abbess. The Irish tradi-
lions of education for women had
spread to England and made the
great school at Streoneshalh.
Founded Hospitals
In every phase of civilization the
Irish We're forward. Three hundred
years before Christ there is the rec
ord of a hospital for the poor long
before anything of the kind is to be
found elsewhere. Hospitals did not
come in until after Christianity. The
ancient Irish medicine of the old
land is very precious chapter in the
history of medicine. Down in Gheel
in Belgium, a little Irish girl work
ing with the missionaries took care
particularly of the backward or
feebleminded children and after her
| martyrdom her shrine continued to
be a place to which these children
were brought by their parents be-
cause they thought the saint would
be interested in them after her
death. The result was the establish
ment there of village care for the
defective and the insane which now
some twelve hundred years later has
, become a model for the world visit
ed by all those who are interested
in this subject. Mrs. Vernon Kellogg,
the wife of the United States Food
Administrator during the war, de-
scribed in the Atlantic Monthly some
! time ago her experiences at Cheel.
| zone of the reasons for the mis-
understanding of the Irish has been
the Irish brogue. People have been
very much inclined to think that a
| people who were too ignorant to
pronounce English properly or per-
haps did not have the organs to do
so, could scarcely be quite capable of
civilization. Recent studies have
shown that the Irish brogue Is ex-
actly the way that Shakespeare pro-