Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 22 May 1902, Page 9

Irish News.

-— «— OUR IRISH LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Dublin, March, 1902 Irish Language Movement.

The latest dispensation of our rulers comes to us in a positively astomnding form. You all lyiov», or at least all the Irish amongst you know, that for many centuries. a strenuous effort was made to root out of the Irish people their religi/o/n and their nationality.

One of the most effective means of clou/ding over all nationality and religion in a people is to take from them the language in which their fathers spoke and in which their mothers taught them to pray. With the Irish this was an especially efficacious means, because, of all races in the world, the Irish were a people who kept alive their history and their traditional knowledge by means of spoken teachings. A few words as to the method of this wilL show how knowledge was thus kept alive and could be kept alive, even were there not thousands of scribes ever busied with the keeping of those records which, so early as twelve centuries ago, foreign invaders began to destroy, with a purpose.

In olden times, the kingdoms of Ireland were divided and subdivided, and these subdivisions again parcelled into districts, every single division, subdivision, and district! of which had its own special chronickr whose education for this duty obliged him to train his memory so that he had by heart a vast store of historical lore, quite distinct from hns piiroly poetic lore. At certain stated intervals, all those historians met, went over together thru- old store of knowledge and their chronicles of all notable e\ents that had taken place since the last assembly ,\ compared notes, corrected inaccuracies, and perfected their records. Moreover, these chronicles that were to be committed to memory were, for the most piart, if not entirely, m verse, and for a very wise reason we may be slipshod in repeating a proso wprk and inaccuracies would thus slip in unintentionally, but m verso this could scarcely occui Thus were handed down intact, m the Irish language, the histoiy, the genealogies, the traditions of our race, and hence, when we were to be forced to forgot the religion and the 'history of our fathers, the Luig,uago, of all things, must go , e\ei,\ moan** — punishment, ridicule. deprivation of education, all were employed to root it out, with t>he natuial consequence that amongst the educated classes, particularly amongst tlm dwellers in towns, it practically ttiod. But it was never correct to say that Irish was a dead language there survived, there ching through all to the mother tongue no less than a quarter of a million of Irish-speak-ing people in the four pro\mcos

The Irish langiua.ge has o,ne peculiarity over every other tongue, perhaps a blessing St Patrick left with it. Although its* grammar is very diffiouilt aJtud lit is rich m idioms, yet, though it was made penal to learn or speak it, our poor peasantry of to-day speak almost as pure-, as correct grammar as if they had all along been t a night by the most careful and competent teachers. They cannot tell why they do it, no more than tlms Spring's young hlackbirid can tell how it is he trills the same notes his parent warbled last year, but certain it is that the peasant who cannot read a word of Irish, the little boy or girl from the far away Dingle promontory speaks Irish, makes the difficult changes of aspiration and ellipsis, of person, mood, and tense in Irish as many a wealthy middleclass Englishman cannot do in English.

Now, we all know that if we want to learn a foreign language and il wo wish to speak that language as the natives of its country speak it, we go for a year or two into that country and study the idioms, the intonations, the \ciy voices of its people I or, if we cannot do this, we take pains to fmd out a native of the land and learn from him how ho sfpeaks his own tong,ue. And still, those who have the goad fortune to study m foieign lands know that even by learning from ihv best teacher obtainable at home, we can make but a poor nttemjit 'Well, the Penal Laws being mostly in abeyance, the Irish are once again at liberty to go to school and to learn their own tongue, and so began twenty-five years ago that movement which has stirred our very hearts, the movement to regain that which was lost to so many of us. How well 1 remember hearing the learned Dr. 11. It Madden, author of the ' Lives of the United Irishmen,' say : ' I would give all tho foreign languages 1 know to be able to speak my native tongue ' Tho people were so earnest and so persistent in their efforts to obtain a recognition of the Irish language from the Commissioners of National -biduoation and from thy In Loi mediate Education Board that tho Government wero obliged to yield a reluctant consent, to permit tho language to be placed amongst subjects for examination, and to appoint native scholars as examiners, one of these exanmners being the Very Rev. Dr. Hicko.v , of Ma.v nooth. But the movement is looked on with disfavor by a certain class of antiCatholics, for our clergy are in it, heart and soul, and so it is to be discountenanced by every possible means. What is tho latest stop taken to discourage the people and turn them away from their present earnest efforts to learn their native tongue? Tho Board of Intermediate Education announces that for the future foreigners are to be appointed as examiners in the Dish languago ! A German professor, who may be able to read ancient In^h, but of a certainty could not follow a conversation amongst native speakers, has been invited over and has been appointed examiner vn Gaelic to the student who cannot understand him and whom ho cannot understand, and our Irish professors arc ordeied to stand aside Of course the obvious motive for this move is so to disgust the people that they may. one ami all. iof use to present themselves foi examination , that the schools (to which the results of said examination aie of considerable value) may cease to include Irish in their cm i ionium, aiui thai the newly-awakened enthusiasm of students may thus be discouraged and die out Their- nu.v also he behind the move that spirit of which I spoke some time ago as a danger, that school of agnostics who .secret lv soutrht to use tho education movement in order to work mischief amongst our gi ovv ing goner.it ion, but who see their aims thwaitod b\ the presence of tho Catholic clergy, who are everywhere foremost m the wor.k, guiding and loading, where it is wise to lead onwards, chocking, whore it is necessajy to check

Tho eve of St Patrick's Da.\ was this year made the occasion for promoting the national desire to ievive our language I'at rickmas, as the old peo-ple call the time, i» henceforth to lie 'Ti ish Language Wook ' ajid on tho lfjth mst a magnificent procession through Dublin marked the opening of « his now 01 a Throughout bliat .uid the following days, collect ions woio made m 1 lie City and suburbs in moot Ihe expenses of publishing books and providing native (nob made in (Uim.uu) teachers and tho le-nlt has boon eminently satisfactotv to the organisers of Irish Ln.nguage Week Visit Postponed

After all, tho King and Queen are not coming to Ireland this year,

though some cling to the hope that his Majesty wtill be &o lacking in tact as to run ashore en gar con during the yachting tour ho intends taking at Easter. It is scarcely likely he will do this, as it would be the re\or.se of complimentary, when he has s just announced, with careful precision of his- woidmg of the fact, that his Ministers will not allow him to. come as King. It is said openly that the King's visit has been prohibited because we are to h;i\o another roiun of coercion , the empty prisons — perhaps as n maiter of economy and to keep the officials going—arc to be lilled With political prisoners, and so forth. It is really most comical. There is no crime : one judge of assize after another complains of the farce of bringing] juries together, simply to compliment them and send them away , men are actually being taken up on the mere word of a "policeman, tried, found not guilty arud sent to prison ' There is no use in wasting words on the farce that is being played out here to keep up an army of officials and fight the last rally for the landlords. M.B.

COUNTY NEWS.

SLIGO.— A Verdict Reversed.

The Castle authorities have received another set-back in the decision of Mr. Justice Andrews in the case of Hickie, a police sergeant] who claimed £500 for damages on account of dnjuricsr received while he was engaged m preventing Mr. John O'Donnell, M.P., from addressing his constituents at Kilmaine last October. When Sergeant Hickie first made his claim County Court Judge Dane awarded him the sum claimed, and directed that it should be levied off Mr. O'Dotuiell's constituency But on appeal Justice Andrews has reversed that decision, holding that the Sergeant in trying 1 to gag John O'Donnell was not engaged ' in Ihe discharge of his duty as a police oJlicer bunging a disturber to justice,' as he would reqluire to have been to come within the- provision of the Act.

GENERAL Temperance Movement.

Not since the days of Father Mathew (writes a Dublin correspondent) has the temperance mo\ement occupied so pi oiniiH'iit a position 'in Ireland as it docs to-day , nor has it bu'ii pushed foiward with such zeal and encigy It is tlie loading topic of the hour bids fair to rovolutronise the social habits of the people, habits that are so detrimental to their welfare, both temporal and eternal. To the lush, hierarchy as a bod.\ and to the bishops and piieslsm their individual capacities this blessed change is almost entitoly due The !Wa\nooth Resolutions, the Lenton Pastorals, and the spu ited action of many ecclesiastics) liko the Hm]u>p of (.ahvay, have done their \\ 01 1 and done it well. This is cMdent to the merest tyro, ,\et we have people who never did anything to forwaid the cause osltontatiouslys Itontatiously culling upon the clergy to do their part, am one; the rest Lord Chief Justice O'J-i.en, who expressed a pious wish to that effect at the opening of the A '-sizes in Traleo

Cromwell in Ireland.

Sir William Butler lectured recently before t lie Im-li Lmrary Society of London on ' The Cromvvellian War m Fi-elanc' Tt had, Sir William said been t/ln effort of the wrileis of ( lio ],^-t ,f v years to miiiKiiiM' iho Proglio(7 massacre, but the evidence of '"unit itrntec? atrncitv was too stio'i and it would '.(and fot all (,•!••" „s one of the bloodiest landmaiks .i.ong the long maid of human gu'Jt

Thanks from English Miners.

The Trish Nationalist party have received the following resolution

from tho delegates representing the Miners' Federation of Creat 15utain 'That the best thanks of this meetting bo given to the Jnsh Parliamentary party m supporting the Miners' Eight Hours Bill and the Coal Mines Employment Bill '

Good Payers.

In the couise of his speech in mtrodiucmg the lush Land Bill m the House of Commons Mr Wynd'hum gave the follow ing particulars oi how tenants who ha.d purchased their holdmus n.et Uieii engaigements . 'lakmg the Acts of 3 891 and 1896, under those Acts more than 30,000 puri'hasois are pa> mg annually £171 1211 to the State ' 1 have no case of bad debts to offer r l lien let me lake uiipninctual ity, and in Ireland we 1 now that ptevmus to purchase people took a view of arreais wliuh 1 may jiiob.ibly describe as liberal Under these two Acts, out of .'<<», oOo jiiui chasei s tlH'i o ate in all Iteland onl.v 09 men six months late, and in all Iteland only one man out oi .">0 <100 who is 18 months late wilh his p.ivment It comes to this, that we aie £10.1 in arrears on £1 7 1 000, or a matter of 5s s'd in rve)y L" !<><»

A Judicial Lsoycott.

Mr Kilbridc* ex-M 1' , addressing a meeting of the United Ii ish League at Lusk lecently, said the judges had taken to denouncing cottmg of landgrab'Wei s How did these mdges themselves act } A well-conducted well-cxlucat ed sergeant m the Dulilin Meti opolit an Police recently memorialised the bencher^, composed laig<l\ of judges, to be jierjinited to enter al-)a 1 -) law student .it Km.,; s Inns but the benchers bo\cc tied him and iclii^ed the appliLat ion I be s<,n of a Connaught l'tidloid explained the boy - cott b\ savum. do you tini'U that tlie benrhe, s. who have the custody ot t hi' hoimi of on r pi 01. ssi on could demean it by allowing a common policeman to become a

American Aid.

The icpoits of 1 1 •■> pi-ogress of tho Finted lush 1 I.iiin 1 delegates, ("Messi s \\ lieilinoinl and 1 levin i ) in t he Si a ! i s indu.il o that the work of establishing the oi g,a ni^a t ion them has been well begun, and the action, of the iUi\ ci nmeiit in Ihi ea ten ing 1 , the suppt e^-smii of the League m Ireland <i>\<\ oushiiig the light of public nieitmg and ft cc sih'im h is having the natural edict of tallying 1 the ltish citi/ens of the 1 mitd Stiatos ad seeming tln'ir s\mpath} The mission has so far been "\ ci v successful, and Ihmiklus of the Loagtue aie beitiL' slatted in tie citie.s and town-, of the States Th.it the Irish in America ate piepateiclto extend substantial Imaii'ial aid to the uiovi ment was proved at the gieat meeting held m Chicago a few weeks ami, when I-0000 was subscribed on the spot