DECAY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 152, 31 March 1876, Page 14

DECAY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

This strange decadence of a beautiful and ancient language, Canon Bourke attributes to manifold causes. Tl c first and most important, after the burning of the Irish manuscripts by the Danes, was, in the opinion of tlie late Professor O'Curry, the occurrence of the AngloNorman invasion : — The protracted conflicts between the natives and their invaders were fatal not only to the vigorous resumption of the study of our languaage, but also to the very existence of a great part of our ancient literature. The old practice of reproducing our ancient books and adding to them a record of such events as had occurred from, the period of their first compilation, as well as the composition of new and independent works, was almost altogether suspended. According to the same authority, the discovery of printing, at a subsequent period, made works in other languages much more easy of access than those transcribed by hand in the Irish tongue. In addition to these causes quoted from O'Curry, Canon Bourke believes that the prospective enactments of Edward 111. and Henry VIII., and the Penal Laws against Catholics were mainly instrumental in discouraging the use and study of Irish. In the reign of Edward 111., a statute passed at Kilkenny forbade every person of English descent, or even of Anglo-Norman extraction, from using the Irish language, under pain of forfeiting of his lands. In the reign of the " monarch of the many wives," the spirit of the statute of Edward was revived. But it was by the Penal Laws against Catholics that the most deadly blow was levelled at the Keltic tongue. Every Catholic was at that time an Irish speaker, and the fury of the soldiery and yeomen was indiscriminately directed against persons speaking the Irish language, and those professing Catholic religion. " Though slowly, yet surely," says Canon Bourke, "the prohibition against the Irish language, the contempt, the deterrent action of the yeomen, the knowledge that no one step could be taken upwards in the social scale witho\it a knowledge of the tongue of those in power, made the Irish peasant feel the necessity not only of learning English, but also, as he thought, of despising and ignoring the language of his fathers. From this view resulted the following barbarous practice :—lt: — It was usual until recently for parents living in the country districts to have what were called scores, or a small tablet, tied to a string, and suspended from the necks of their children. On this tablet the parents were in the habit of cutting a notch or mark each time the growing boy or girl spoke Irish at home, so that the heartless anti-Irish pedagogue should inflict an equal number of stripes next day at school on the innocent delinquent. His Grace the Ai'chbishop has several times assured the writer that he ' had, in the days of his youth, suffered from speaking his mother tongue 1 " — ' Connaught Telegraph.'