THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 216, 15 June 1877, Page 7

THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

In the House of Commons on Monday night (March 5) Mr. O'Clery asked a question with reference to the faofc that while Welsh-speaking children in Welsh National Schools were examined in their native tongue, no such examination was held in Irish National Schools. Sir M. H. Beach, in his reply, said that while inspectors of schools in the districts in which the Celtic language is spoken generally take pains to test the intelligence of the children by translating from English into Irish, the Celtic language in Ireland was in a very different position from that which it held in Wales, being in the former country only a spoken language by the few who use it, while in Wales it was a literary language, in which books and newspapers were constantly being printed. Our national sftlf-love ought never to blind us to the truth, and it is impossible to gainsay the substantial accuracy of the Chief Secretary's remarks. The Irish, or, to speak more accurately, the Erse tongue, has shared to the full in one of the most remarkable philological events of recent times — the decay and extinction of the Celtic family of languages. A hundred years ago there were six dialects of the Celtic spoken in Western Europe — the Erse, spoken by the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland j the Gaelic, spoken by the Scotch Highlanders; the Manx, spoken by the people of Man; and the Cornish, by the people of Cornwall, both Manxmen and Cornishmen being very pure Celts ; the Breton, the tongue of the people of Brittany, in France ; and the Cymric, the language of the inhabitants of Wales. Of these tongues one is dead — the Cornish ; it perished within the present century, and some forty years ago Dolly Pentreath, an old woman who lived near the Land's End, was pointed out as the last Cornish-speaking person in the Peninsula. Manx is at the last gasp, is now only spoken in a few out-of-the-way corners of the island, and will probably not survive the present century. In our own country the recent evidence of the Census, and, indeed, the evidence of our own experience, shows that our own ancient tongue is disappearing, that it is now unknown not alone in our own great cities and towns, but in large districts of the country. Alone of all the daughters of the grand old Celtic mother, the Breton and the Welsh live on in comparative strength. On the wild hill-sides of Armorica, in the valleys of Wales, still dwell races brethren to our Irish race in blood and origin, but more faithful than we have been to that ancient tongue in which was first related the deeds of Arthur, in which Columba preached and Ossian sung, which in the night of the- dark ages was the vehicle by which the scholars of Erin communicated to the youth of Europe all knowledge, human and divine. Thirty years ago a band of brilliant young enthusiasts dreamed the dream that the ancient Erse tongue could be revived among the Irish people as a national language. This was a noble and touching dream, but it was only a dream, and has long been abandoned even by enthusiasts. We have our duty, however, by this ancient tongue of our fathers — a. tongue dear to us, as are all things which made up the old Celtic nationality. Before it passes away we should endeavour to garner and to treasure all the treasures which that tongue contains — treasures of song, history, romance — treasures illustrating the origin of our race, our melancholy but profoundly interesting National story — treasures to which the fullest justice has been done by living English and Scotch scholars, such as Mr. Arnold and Dr. Blackie. The folklore of the Celt is bright and spirituelle beyond that of all other peoples ; the songs of the Celt have— even the imperfect translations of Macp erson— profoundly affeoted such minds as those of Byron and Napoleon. It would be a lasting disgrace to this nation, the tldest daughter of the Celtic sisterhood, if she not alone allowed the tongue of her sires to perish, but if she made no effort to save the precious treasures it contains. — Weekly Freeman.