The Gaelic League.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 July 1910, Page 4

The Gaelic League.

TEACHING THE IRISH i,AXGU AGE. The Special Commissioner who has investigated Irish affairs for the Pall Mall Gazette has something interesting to say aibout the movoiueiufc for popularising the Irish Language:— "The Gaelic League, yet Another league professing to bo nonpolitical, has laid it down that ail I the youth of .Ireland must be instructed. iji tho Irish language. Far be it from a mere Englishman to say one word against this language, which embodies beautiful .legends and induces a poetic frame of mind among those scholarly persons who penetrate its mysteries. Hut this movement is no less than ail aittempt to make Irish, «a practically dying language at tho present day, the common speech of the people; and to-day, as I write, is reported in the Inisli newspapers a medtiiwg held in Dublin for the purpose of .advocating tho .inclusion of the Irish language and Irish history as essential subjects at the matriculation examinations, and that adequto arrangements should be made for the teaching of these subjects in tho newly constituted National University of Ireland. When the newlyconstituted Roman Catholic University is set going we shall see whether the Gaelic Leaguers are to have their way; the English Government, which they hate and abhor, haying .provided the monev. they wish to force upon their fellow countrymen the study of Irish as a pr.act,ical_ everyday matter; but the victory ig_ not yet gained. The lush ma 11 is 110 .fool, and lie knows just as well as anybody else that tiie Irish language, in the -resent clay, possesses an academic interest only, and will not in the least further li, s efforts to get on film the M Ol r> 11 moetill S held at. tho Rotunda in, Dublin, «a letter wa si'ead from tho Very Rev. MiehI ; 1U . ] , p - ,° Rickey, D.D., of Trisli at 'Saint Patrick's College, Maynooth This gentleman snvs that any University established in lieland and designed to educate 11 iJinien should employ the Irish Janguage as tho medium of instruction and of academic and social interoomse. Thai .ifeal i s «tp]y impossible at attainment for the moment,' ete. Now, of this Jasfc sentence there can be no manlei of and it would have been extremely interesting to discover whmt, percentage of all those gathered .together in tb® Rotnnd.a at tins meeting could have strung together two sentences of Irish, and what nivmiber per thousand could have; written a letter in this language.