Nearer Home

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 11 January 1906, Page 18

Nearer Home

Castle officialism in Ireland looks with as little favor on the ' language movement ' as does Prussian officialism upon the national tongue of Poland. But even Dublin Castle, much as it dares, cannot at this hour of the twentieth century adopt the fierce coercive measures that are in operation for the suppression of Poliish speech and Polish customs in the province of Posen. And yet the last few weeks have witnessed some scenes that reflect the last discredit upon British administration in the place that is called the ' sister ' isle. Eamon O'Neill, 8.A., of Kinsale, was, for instance, sent to Cork "Gaol for the crime of signing in Irish an application for a dog-license. Alderman Cole, of Dublin, has been) repeatedly fined for using Irish characters upon his carts. So have sundry scores of others throughout the country. And the Local Government Board (consisting of a number of English nominees sitting in Dublin Castle) have compelled the members) of the Wicklow County Couuidil to pay out of their own private purses the cost of having the streetnames painted in Irish characters. And is not the old law still in full force which makes it a felony to report in Irish the proceedings of any court of justice ? Yet there are some good people who wonder why Ireland is discontented and wants Home Rule.