GAELIC NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 3 May 1895, Page 25

GAELIC NOTES.

Heku Kuno Meyeb, id the Garlic Journal for March, quotes from the Leabbar Ereac the rule of Mocbuta of llathen for teaching the command me nte. It dateß from the ninth century, and well bears ou the reputation for Banc'uty and scholarship deserved by Ireland in those early ages. The dutitß of a Christian are summed up, pithily and in polished metre, in the form of a poem of eight verses. Ab an example we take the fourth verse — wbich, we may add, might be studied with advantage by the yoang people ot the peiiod, as it was, no doubt, by those of the golden days iv which it was written : — Airmitiu do thustide Timarna in il, » Ocus cecb oeo is sruthiu Ab siniu ol m-bi. Honour to thy parents The King ordains, And to everyone that is senior And older than thou art. A recent number of the Journal of the Cork Archaeological Society gives some account of certain Anglo-Saxon saints who, in the seventh and ninth centuries, were settled in Ireland. One of them,

named t>t Gerald, who died in 697, became the patron of tbe Oonnty Mayo. Another named St Beretchert or Carry-tbe-Right, otherwise ihjugh in error, known as St Benjamin, had hisabode at Tullylease in tbe County Cork — where hiß " pattern " still continues to be held. A legend explaining; tha Saint's name is, in effect, that to confute a Druid who opposed his teaching, he suffered, in company with his opponent, the ordeal of fire— a hut which they entered together being burned over their heads. The Druid wan consumed but the Haint escaped untouched. The fact, meantime, that AngloSaxon b tints were settled in Ireland, and that their memories are sill honoured theTe Beems of no little interest.

It is interesting to know, by existing remains and earlipr accounts (sayß a recent author), that the primitive Irish monasteries were of the same type as those of Egypt and Syria, consisting of scattered huts or cells grouped round a church or oratory of a humble character, and surrounded by a stone wall (caiheV), or by an earthen lampart (rath, dun, or Us"), with a ditch, and on the top a palisade and q'uck hod;^e for eeclusive enclosure, and for defence agains* robbers and wild beaßts. And it may probably have been safety ac well as solitudt that so often recommended islands to the Celtic monks as sites for monasteries. In Ireland the cells were often wooden or wattled huts, but not uncommonly of 6tone, and of " beehive " form, made by laying each course a little within the one below, until the top was covered in. ... The little churches or oratories were invariably oblong, without chancels ; when of stone they were at first roofed on the same principle as the bee-hive cellsi the construction of the arch not being understood till much later* And the description of early Irish monasteries would serve for those of Egypt and Syria. . . . There is, however, no reason for supposing that all the buildings in Ireland were directly copied from those in the East. It was (or may have been) rather that the same mod* of life required similar buildings, and a similar stage in civilisation required the sam« methods of construction.

If Mrs Beecher Stowo speaks the truth the literature of Ireland must be reckoned ac confined to the Irish manuscripts remaining from the earlier nges :— " The literature of a people," she says, " must spring from the sense of its nationality, and nationality is impossible witho ut stlf-respect, and self-respect is impossible without liberty." It is generally accepted, and no doubt with good reason, that Ireland had possessed no literature before her conversion to Christianity. Tbip, nevertheless, must seem pomewhat straoge when th advanced state to which art had attained among the pagan inhab' c tantß is taken into cons deration. Still stranger does it appear if we recall the fact that in those prehistoric Hm'v, a method of writing undoubtedly existed — remnants of which aie still to be seen. We allude to the Ogam whose letters were represented by lines cut in stone or wood. In this way 18 single letteiß, two combined consonants (ng and ft), and five diphthongß were in use, Those inscribed on wood have, of course, perished, but many of the stone records, marking the burial of kings or heroes, still remain, and probably more are yet to be found. Indeed we learn from the Cork publication to which we have already referred that en Ogham Btone, baa recently been found built into the wall of a church in Cornwall— for the writing in question was not confined to the Celts nf Ireland. AnothT stone of the same kind, it would seem, had previously been found in the same place. There appoars to be room, therefore, for wonder as to why the ancient lush had not made some further i advance in the direction of letters. Dr Houglas Hyde, besides, tells us that the wealth of early Irish native prosodical terms seems to him some proof of a pre-Christian culture. Irishmen abroad (sayß the appeal of the Dublin Gaelic League) should bear in mind that the Irish Language is the one substantial barrier between our race and gradual absorption into the vast and undistinguished mass of English-speaking people, a process that has already gone far too far. The prestnt is the time, and the only time for action. We confidently rely on our kinsmen abroad for support t and we 88 confidently undertake that that support, if accorded, will be used prudently, energetically, and effectivtly.