THE LANGUAGE MOVEMENT IN MELBOURNE

New Zealand Tablet, 19 March 1914, Page 19

THE LANGUAGE MOVEMENT IN MELBOURNE

STIRRING ADDRESS IN GAELIC. The activities of the Gaelic League are not confined to Irelaaid. For some years America has possessed flourishing branches of this league of Irish speakers, who are bent upon preserving from oblivion the ancient tongue of the * Island of Saints and Scholars.’ That Australia has made great strides in the direction of this movement may be seen from a recent Melbourne Advocate , which devotes the best part of a column in Gaelic type, to reporting an address in the Irish language given recently to the Melbourne branch of the Gaelic League, by Mr. John Connellan. The following is a somewhat free translation of his address, and of the concluding verses by Dr. Douglas Hyde: I am very pleased to be here this evening to give you a hundred thousand welcomes, and I am delighted

help in saving your country's language from death, by giving every assistance in your power to those who are working for its sake in Ireland. And there is no doubt that a great blow for it has already been struck. Some people say that Gaelic is dying, and that you are doing a profitless work in attempting to keep it alive ; but I tell you here to-night, and 1 tell every worthless, unnatural, unpatriotic half-Saxon churl of them all, that the Gaelic be living, vigorous, spoken and held in high honor by the people of Ireland, when they themselves are without fame and without repute. God forbid that the day should ever come when the other nations of the earth should say to us in derision and in mockery : 'Behold them, inhabitants of a country without a language, a country which cannot be reckoned among the nations, a country which can never achieve its redemption, because it has lost the cymbol of nationality, it has lost the possession which above all else makes for independence, its own language. But

J. F. Macedo, Photo

to see this large gathering—a gathering not only of men and women from Ireland, but also of people born in this country. When I came to Melbourne aboxit a month ago, I saw a thing that put the strength of hope and courage into my heart, and that ought to give hope and courage to every Irishman in whatever part of the world he may be. I saw this branch of the league going on vigorously, teachers and students at work zealously and industriously for the sake of the Gaelic language and of Ireland, speaking and reading and writing the Gaelic tongue, studying the history and literature of Ireland, and practising recitations and songs and dances which have come down to us from our ancestors. This is a very good sign for the Gaelic cause, and it shows that you have worked heartily and with a will for the sake of Ireland. You are gathered together here to-night for one purpose only, and that is to

on the contrary, let it be said, as was written by the ‘Delightful Little Branch/ Dr. Douglas Hyde: ‘ Let us praise the language of Erin with pride, Our heirloom, our jewel, our pearl ; May it manfully fight, may It quite put to flight The harsh-sounding jargon of “ Beurla,” And let it not die, let it grow up on high Like a branching and beautiful tree, And oh, be the word on all Irish lips heard, With its growth we grow happy and free. May the Irish tongue flourish for aye.’