THE PRIESTS OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 379, 23 July 1880, Page 9

THE PRIESTS OF IRELAND.

[James Redpath, in the Xieie York Tribune.} I dined with five parish priests the other night. From a strictly secular point of view I have found those Irish priests to be right good, fellows. Large numbers of them have been educated in France, and they speak French, Latin, and Gaelic as well as they speak English. Talking of Gaelic reminds me that I have forgotten to say that it is quite common in the West of Ireland for the priest to deliver a sermon both in English and in Irish. There are still old folks who can talk no language but Gaelic. Even the old people who do talk English like to hear the Gospel preached to them in the language of their forefathers. There was quite a revival of interest in the old Irish literature a few years ago, and many of the ancient manuscripts of the earlier periods of Irish history were translated. They are quite remarkable Jiterary relica, and some of them arc of rare beauty. But, after all, Goldsmith is worth a cartload of them. It is not by looking backwards but by going ahead that tho glory of Ireland can be established. Canon Boarke, of thii town, has published a grammar of the Irish tongue, and has written several learned books about the Aryan origin of the Celtic race and language and kindred topics. What a singular life thase Catholic priests do live in this our Nineteenth Century ! Up before the sun every morning to hear Mass, listening to the confessions of uncultivated peasants, and directing their devotiona ; guiding them both in social and religious ways, and now standing between them and famine. Their daily life here in Ireland explains the vast and beneficent power of the Church in times of which not even the traditions linger in our America. One reason why the Boroan Church is so powerful in Ireland is that it meets its people at every point of their lives and every where provides for the illiterate masses an educated and trustful guide in times of peril and of sorrow. Priests of all creeds have striven t© arrest the march of human progress, but it would be a grave disaster to Ireland if her priests were to be removed to-day. The people would be crushed out. or driven into rebellion by the worse than Bourbon despotism of the landed proprietors.