Evening star., 1938-06-26
BY LIAM LENIHAN.

Valera hopefully wrote into his
v new charter last December that
the popularity elected President
Of his new Fire would be AN outstanding,
non political figure" wits remarked that
Ireland's Augean stables.
The task indeed was . difficult one
Irishmen dearly love politics and politicians.
They also worship scholars but do not de-
stroy them. And that was why Eamonn
de Valera. casting around desperately for
his symbolic figure. picked on the venerable
well-beloved patriarch of the non political
Gaelic League acknowledgement DR..
Douglas Hyde. To Irelands two major
parties. both equally anxious to avoid an
election. Hyde was the one man they could
rally around. Morally influential because
Of his character and personality, the
Craoibhin Aoibhinn delightful little
branch), as sentimental Irishmen Affection
ately call him, avoided politics as he would
the plague.
As defined by the constitution, the
President Uactaran), whose term is seven
years. has limited powers; the real power
is welded by the Taoiseach prime Min
ister). Yet Hyde's selection has more
than symbolic meaning. Though he rep
resents in De Valera's eyes the recreated
Gaelic State, he is the real Ireland, too.
He comes from the West wither the native
Irish were driven in the 17th century with
the shout: ITO hell or to Connaught."
And though he is Protestant in . pre-
dominately Catholic land the people re-
we're him for his scholarship The love
of the farming" is q strong trait in the
Irish character. Not education in the mod
ern sense. But the man who can expound
Plato and Aristotle, who can talk familiarIy
Of druids and of Deirdre, who can read the
Tain" and recite the poems Of Brian Merri-
man-that man gains more respect than
the politician or the priest. Hyde talks to
them of those things. He Is their glorious
past; . voice from that dim Celtic twi-
light.
Son Of Protestant Rector.
Little is known Of Hyde's early childhood.
He was born in Frenchpark, County Ros-
common, to q Protestant rector whose for
bears settled in Ireland in the wake Of
Cromwells conquering legions. Others born
IN circumstances similar to his received q
routine schooling at Trinity College, Dublin,
or in England. were carefully bred in the
tradition of the Protestant "Ascendancy''
class and dutifully took up duties in the
conquered province" As preachers or petty
| oficials.
But young Hyde did not follow that
| pattern. Perhaps it was something in the
| lonely Connaught roads, in the gray mists
in the wheeling curleys cry. in the sudder
| fitful winds that started within him "a
thousand warbling echoes never to
die" Like the others, he went to Trinity
where he distinguished himself as . bril-
liant honors student Unlike the others
he mixed with the despised natives and
sat at the feet Of wandering minstrels By
the peat fires of humble Connemars
hearths There, hard by the fagstones ir
the gathering Irish dusk, Hyde listened
and memorized the music. poetry, rama
legends and folklore. which had beer
handed down by word of mouth through
dim centuries and had now become wover
into the very texture Of the Gaelic mind
| To young Hyde who saw all arounc
him increasing evidence Of alien "absorp-
ton" in which professional, oficial ant
business classes ignored the cultural herit.
age Of the Irish people this ancen
civilization was in danger Of extinction
That danger was only too real The 19ti
century found the people Irish; it left then
imitation English. It destroyed their Ian
guage, their music, their pastimes. theil
special social atmosphere. One by one tn
links that bound them to the past snapped
One by one the emblems of separatenes
disappeared. In 1907 the native tongue wa