THE IRISH GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 46, 15 March 1895, Page 6

THE IRISH GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

(Ad pogny by Patrick PboFIBSOR Henry Morlky in one of his essays htatis ' that while history may more or less tru hfully recount the deeds of a na ion, its literature can be taken aa an exacc index of the chaiacter and inward life of the people who compose that nation." That these words of this eminent English scholar can be applied to the people of the old land leaves very lit le room for negative argument. Though her round towers and ruined abbeys have been looked upon as monuments of her early architecture ; though the memory of many of her illustrious sons and daughters may be difficult to obliterate, these symbols of her greatness will in the courte of a few hundred years be forgotten. Not so bei literature. It has existed from the earliest ages, handed down f.otn generation to generation, from father to son, from Ollamh to Ollamh, until we in this remote corner of the earth, and in these declining years of tha nineteenth century, esteem it a pleasure, and consider it a duty to study and examine those vast fijldsof wisdom and learning, left as a legacy and as an everlas'ing mouument of the scholarly attainments of our forefathers in Erin. To tbe ordinary etudent of Irish liter -ture the most prominent characteristic that presents itself, no matter whether tie study be connected with translations of ancient manuscripts or with the perusal of more modern literature, the one striking fea ure of the collection is its intense regard for what may be termed tbe religious Bense of duty. Throughout the whole course of its long and brilli-int career, Irish liteiature hag always represented the people of Ireland as a people striving to find out the right and to do it — rooting out wrong and endeavouring by every means in their power to move ever onward and upward, as a duty to their Creator, their Home, and their Country. By thiß par'icular attribute, and by these agencies, baß vhat ■trong determined spirit b^eu enkindled in the people of Ireland.

rekindle the flame of civilisation, on the continent of Burope. Nor can the names of those grea< Irish institutes of learning be forgo ten, Bangor, Armagh, Clonm^cnoiee, Listnorp, etc. — insiitutions presided ov^r by Irishmen, and into who^c keeping were entrusted those precious reliOH ii Gieeko-FioUittU cullure, *hlch had piac ic.tlly perished iv Europe. That the influence of Ir bb Bcholars and Inch literatnre was gieat no person acq .tainted with the history of Germany, Franc*-, aud Italy will deny. Numerous proofs of the high stage of proficiency attained by those Celtic scholars still exist in various parls if Ih' world, iv the bhape of well preserved manusciipts. These are now treasured by their fortunate possessors wi'h tbe greatest care containing, as they do, the history of a people wUoee traditions are lo i in the maze of antiquity, but whose records will live as long as man exists. Of the language in which these manuscripts are written this is not the place to state very much. To know it, it is necessary to study its grammars, its dictionaries and written works, With regard to the class of languages to which it belong", it baa been settled beyond dispute that it belongs to the Indo-European, or, as it is now called, the Aryan tongue. Ita relation to the Greek and Latin la gmgee is very close, especially to the latter. Indeed many of the radical words of both languages are almost identical. The Celtic race and tongue did, it appears, occupy at one time the whole of the south of E'irope, spreading from the Hellespont aloDg the shores oE the Adriatic nnd the Western shores ofthe Mediterranean, bounded on the north by the Danube and the Rhine, and txtending to the Wea'ern shores of Ireland. To this day, the old Celtic tongue ie spoken, with very ehght alteration, by the major portion of the people in that part of the country. During the last fifty years mucb stndy has been devoted to the translations of these old manuscripts by both German and Irish scholars, with the result that much of the old Gaelic literature can ba studied without a great knowledge of the language in which the originals are written. English having now become the Irishman's native tongue, a few words on the literature of the presant day will tnd my effort. Irish j writers and their works fir the last two centuries are well known to

Through its powi rful effect it waß that our torefatheia received the ! doctrines of St Patrick and his succtssoia in pe.»ce and with thankfulneee. Through it, in more modern times, have ihe people of the old land been enabled to bear their troub'es. Through this characteristic of the litera'uie of Ireland, have the people of that land won, and by it alone can they hope to retain, the proud dihtinction of beinpr one of the most intrepil races of peopl- on the face of the earth. Banißh this characteristic from the litera'ure of the old land and you extinguish the life and the asmratiuns of the Irish people. It wou ] d Eeem almost an impossibility to comctly classify the literature of Ireland ; but in an attempt to da so prominence must be given to that wbicb may be termed the old Celtic school. Ii is, perhaps, unfortunate, thut any allusion by an irishman to the high Btate of civilizition and refiaemfnt that txisted in the lan i of his forefathers daring the early centuries of the Chiistian era, in apt to be received with deiitnon. Yet history certainly does not eir in this respect, as, i*ot only do we fiad positive proof in the annalu of the j country ilsUf. but cor.firmatoiy evidence, rela lye to the t-cholaily and Ii -TAry attftiQaiento of ihe ancient peop'e of Ireland, can be found all ov r the continent of Kuupo. Irtjlaun can indeed lay claim to a great past. She Cm not only i boast of having beta the birthplace and abode of advanced art and | high culture during the fifth aud sixth centuries, at a time when the lioman Empire was being undermined by the alliances and incursions l£ noithen tribes, which threatened to reduce the whole on'ment to barbarism ; but she can also lay claim to having ma - e strenuous aud successful efforts in the 7th and np to ihe 10th century in spreading her learnibg amrngstthe nations of Europe. Continuation of tbis can be found at the piesent day. Monum 'nts of the m'npdit} of Irish scholais, of their grbai attainments in art and science, in lnerary ab.litv, and ecclrfeiasticil knowledge can be found a I over Europe They, ami th val me, it was who founded th' se gieit 81 ais of harnint;. Ihe namis of til (iall, Bobb'o, M James of Ua lbbon, lVicheriJin. fnd mm y others, will remain f r ages aR silent viitnenses of the if i !> i-f lnah ie iolais to plant the 6ee.ds ot learning, and to

all readers of English literature. Indeed it would appear as if the Irish writers of to-day looked to Ireland for inspirathn, and to EDgland for models of literary workmanship. The forms of expression, or what might be called the Btyle of dress in which many of tbetn attempt to clothe their ide*s, always appear to be borrowed from some notable Enghsi writer. What tha outcome of this blending of Celtic thoughts and ideas with English forms of expression will be, it ia very difficult to conjecture. One thing is very certam, that it will never become very popular with the people of Ire Und, nor can it ever expect to hold them so enthralled as the old and pure Celtic school, a school which means to remain through good or ill — " Kindly Irish of the Tnsh Neither Saxon nor Ita ian," though Irish lit< rature of the present day is not what it was in times gone by. T*o hundred )ears ago the Irish mind bad hardly begun to think in English, and the lush heart had absolutely no voice but the I beloved and eloqu 'nt language of the Giel. Yet at the preseot moment there is hir ily a ration nrj e-^r h whose literature Irishmen and women have, not bad some voice iv building up. And now, when the days of gloom an i travail are passing away from Ireland, may ' we poon look for a return of those diys of Celtic art, freedom, and I learning, or, in the words of the late John B. O'&eilly — " When the foreign blight is removed from her land, when the valleys, the rivers, and the hills rirg with happy Irish voices, when the loot? hilenca ia broken by the whirr of busy Irish wheels, wnen the dark treasures are dug from theearth and fashioned intolovely art, whfn the nets of the fishers in lake and in river are burdened daily with be .ping wealth, when the slips sail in and out on every tide from the haibour-serned coat, wnen liieh marble and porpbyriesarecarved into pt( ciouh forms of loveliness when the Irishman stretches out his baod to ih • worl t full <>f his kind re ■<, and rej jices in othe r men's joy, instead of gn^vngov i hisnwngnef th< n there Fha'lcome poets to Ire'and, with sontiH attuned to a new spirit, and the voice of the Celt shall be heard througn a thonsa d years VJ f triumph aa it has been through a thousand years of pain."