THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 61, 14 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir— Would you kindly insert the following appesl to Irishmen on behalf of the Irish language. Now that there is a literary society and reading-room in this city, whore Erin's sons meet, and being composed, as I presume, of men from the four proviuoos of Ireland, no doubt there are a good many nmong them who can speak their native tongne. I therefore beg leave to suggest to them that I think it would be in keeping with their literature to have an Irish olass, ¦ay, two or three times a week, and thereby give an opportunity to the youths ot Irish parents, as well as any others, who may wish to learn the Celtic tongue. They would thus preserve a link between the past and the present ; between the land of their birth and the country of their adoption. Scholars on the continent of I' urope are studying It for the sake of its philological and ethnological uses. Irishmon in foreign countries ought to study it for the sake of keeping up a bond ot sympathy and union between thomsolves and their aountrymen at Home. Irishmen should not allow the glory of their sweot mother tongue to die out. That glorious inheritance and proof of civilization to whioh the Hibernian oan point back to with so muoh pride; that Celtic tongue in whioh St. Fatriok, upon the Hill of Tara, in the year of 432, addressed the king, lords, and poets of Erin ; that language in whioh Brian the Brave fired the spirits of his brave soldiers at the battle of Clontarf, when, upon Good Friday, 1014, ha routed the Danes front the Irish soil; that language which was spoken in Ireland when it was designated the island of saints and scholars, when it waa the monaatio centre of Europe ; in a word, that language whioh was spoken by Ireland's sages, seen, bards, and poets, when they filled the air of their native island with the rioh harmony of our Coltio tongue. Now that there is a sooiety for the preservation of the Irish language formed, and among them some of the most illustrious names in Ireland and the Continent, suoh as bis Grace the Most Rev. T. M. Croke, D.X/ Arohbishop of Cashel, Marshal M'Mahon, oxPresiaent of the Frenoh .Republic his Excellency Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of the Mauritius, and hundreds of others too numerous to name. The language ia Tory easily aoquired, as it is whole and entire in itself ; there is no need for the student to go searching through any othor language for the derivation of words, as it never borrowed. Any person who is desirous of learning it may do so very easily ; the first Irish book, grammar, and copy-book may be obtained in this oity for the small sum of one shilling. How to learn Irish and be Irish— " One letter, then toother, Aud the alphabet is (rained ; One word, then another, And the language is attained ; Oni speak it, then another, And 'tis ipoken v before; One man, then anothsr. And we'ro Irish as of yore." lam, &c, Erin-go-Bbagh.