Evening star., 1938-07-10
Character of Fires
New President
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

A curious anomaly Of history = tAAt
DR.. Douglas Hyde, flrst President Of MA
under the new constitution and Of 1res
land under that name, comes from .
long line Of English stock and has baan
noted throughout nearly all Of his 1cig
life as q man who consistently kept out
of politics. Eamon de Valera, OF course,
was half American and half Spanish
and, for years was not politically active.
living the life OF a scholar. but his peo-
pie had long been Irish. 1t Is true that
for many years the family had been
planted in ireland which. perhaps, euI.
phasizes 1he old statement that the most
thoroughly IriSh man Is q descendant
of Englishmen.
The Hyde family came originally from
Benchworth. in Berkshire. where they
had been planted from the time Of Queen
Elizabeth. The original emigrstion was
to Cork. with q later removal into Ros-
common. After this interesting back
ground, DR.. Hyde has been chosen all
most unanimously as president of tho
new state, and this In spite Of the fact
that he has reached the advanced age
Of 7s.
1t is asserted by close observers and
experts on Irish life that his very de.
tachment from politics is responsible for
his elevation to the highest office in the
land. whose powers, under the present
constitution are greater than those OF
the President of France, although some
what less than those OF the American
President. He is described as a man OF
almost childlike simplicity, devoid OF
political guile. The explanation of his
choice is that for practically all his life
he has devoted his efforts and talents to
a rebirth of Irish literature and cultur>,
At the time of his birth, in the middle
OF the last century, the Irish hatred
OF the English was bitter. The famine
and the various troubles had intensified
this feeling. The Irish were boycctting
everything British merely because 1t was
British, but had nothing to replace such
English culture as had been introduced.
The Gaelic tongue was almost forgotten.
Indeed the English sought to abet the
forgetting by the Irish of their own ira.
ditions in spite of the fact that q rich
culture had come to Ireland earlier than
to England. The great Abbey of Kells, q
seat OF learning to which came scholars
from the continent, stood far ahead Of
anything England had to show. while
at the Hall of Tara was a court ranking
ahead OF petty kinglets courts In Eng.
land.
1t was by pure chance that DR.. Hyde
became the foremost champion of the
revival of Irish culture. After early
schooling, the boy was sent to Trinity
College, in Dublin. He was reared a
Protestant and still is and Trinity was
so Protestant and so much inclined to
De Anglophile that many Irishmen re-
ferred to the school as little more than
an English garrison OF course there
have been plenty of great Irish leaders
sprung from the Protestant ranks Such
great leaders as O'Connell, Robert
Emmett and Edmund Burke were Prot.
estants.
The young Hyde had been only ten
days in Dublin when he was attacked bv
measles. He was forced to return home
ana never went to school again, although
ne now stands at the head of Irish
letters and scholarship. While recuper-
ating from his attack he went hunting
on the bogs with his father, who had
been granted that privilege by the lord
OF the manor. On these excurions he
often fell in with an aged gamekeeper
who was one Of a relatively few people
who still had the Gaelic tongue. Also
he had an inveterate habit OF telling
long stories in Gaelic out of the ancient
Irish lore
The lad was fascinated and quickly
picked up the language and an immense
fondness for the old tales. He doeped
the feet Of the old gamekeeper, con-
stantly urging him to tell more Of the
lore. The naturally garrulous old Celt
never tired and Hyde received an educa-
ton which doubtless changed the whole
course Of his life
While with tutors and by his own
efforts he later mastered English. Ger
man, French, Latin, and Hebrew, his
first love remained the Irish tongue.
While he never went formally back to
school. he had special courses at Trinity
and there took the highest honors but
his interest in what was regarded as the
dead language of Gaelic was a source of
constant amazement to the students
there. The language had come to be
looked upon as curious survival among
a few peasants. While his prose and
verse in English were highly thought of
his own interest remained in the old
native tongue and he become determined
10 revive 1t. together with the ancient
Irish culture in general
To this end he brought together q few
friends whose interest he had aroused
and formed the Gaelic League. It's pur-
pose was a revival of every branch of
the old culture, including arts and
crafts. His work became more and more
widely known and the league spread to
America, where there were some 1--WE
1rlshmen to every one In Ireland.
1t was in 1905 that DR.. Hyde came to
America to lecture on the subject which
had become burning cause to him BY
this time. He toured widely and COL
lected substantial funds for carrying on
the work of Irish cultural revival. He
was ten days out of San Francisco when
the San Francisco earthquake occurred.
When. later. by cable he learned what
had occurred he Immediately returned
some $25.000 he had collected there with
instructions that 1t be used for relief.
On his return to Ireland his friends
presented him with small mansion in
County Roscommon and there he resided
all during the intervening years.
He next undertook an especially difi-
cult task. the introduction of Gaelic
teaching in Irish schools. English au-,
thorities were much opposed to this at
first because they feared any Irish or
ganiZatiOn was certain to be n uolitical