THE GAELIC NATIONAL FESTIVAL.

New Zealand Tablet, 21 November 1918, Page 11

THE GAELIC NATIONAL FESTIVAL.

- * The Oireachtas opened at^-KrUarney—lreland ,~ oil August 4, without any formal ceremony. Owing to the want of the usual train facilities the festival was not so large as in previous years. The competitions were held in the Avenue Hall. A feature was the great improvement in war pipe music (an piob mor). The number of entries was 410, including 42 in the literary and 139 in the language section. A prize of £SO was offered by the London Gaelic League in memory of the late Padraic Mac Piarais (P. H. Pearse) for a composition in modern Irish poetry. The annual report of "the Gaelic League presented to the Ard Fheis is printed wholly in Irish. It is a record of remarkable expansion. the income has doubled, and all phases or activities extended. There were 170 new branches founded and 150 old branches reorganised. The official, organ of the League, Fainne an Lae (The Dawn) is now self-supporting. On the second day of the festival a large number of the visitors attended a Requiem Mass at the Franciscan church for the repose of the soul of Roger Casement. In the evening two plays were presented—"Tir na n-Og" ("The Land of the Ever-Young") by An Seabhac, and "An Dochtuir Breige" ("The Quack Doctor") by Fiman Lynch. The plays were well received. It was pointed out that both authors were at present in prison. Professor Eoin Mac Neill, President of the Gaelic League, presided at the meeting of the Ard Fhei3 (Supreme Council) on August 6. The business was formal, and Professor Mac Neill was again elected President. At a hurling match between two first-class teams on the first day of the Oireachtas, quite a number of American and Colonial officers looked on. They displayed considerable interest in this—the original of all the bat-and-ball games now played, and which has existed, in one form or another, from time immemorial in every Celtic country.