Irish Revival Week in Dublin

The Gaelic League exists for the purpose of bringing back into Irish life the use of our own language, not as an academic school subject, but for everyday use. Those who believe in Ireland a Nation will not question the utility of this project, and the only thing that need be discussed with them is its feasibility. The best proof that Irish can be restored within a reasonable time is the rapidity with which it was lost over large districts of the country.

One hundred years ago Irish was spoken up to the gates of Dublin; indeed this was so up to the great Famine of 1845-7. We must now reverse the process and restore our own language.

The schools were a main factor in destroying the language; they must be made a main factor in restoring it. Had the schools responded to the ideals of the Gaelic League twenty years ago, every person now under 80 years of age in Ireland would be a Gaelic speaker today. The teaching of a living language to young children is an easy matter; witness how early every child acquires the use of its own speech. It is safe to say that if the schools did their duty even now, every school-going child in Ireland would have a good working knowledge of Irish in three years.

Is it not time they set to work? It is not correct to attribute the whole of the default of the schools in this matter to the irresponsible Boards who are entrusted with public education in Ireland. In the case of National schools, managers and teachers have important powers which have never yet been fully exercised on behalf of Irish. The schools of the Christian Brothers are untrammelled by official control. The Intermediate schools are hampered by a programme in which Irish has to be taught virtually as a dead language, but as some of them manage to do good work for Irish, there is no reason why others should lag behind.

The Universities are free from control and the National University is doing excellent work for the language. It would do still better work, if cordially supported by its feeders, the Intermediate schools. While Irish in the schools is by far the most vital matter in the work of the Gaelic League, there are other things of great importance. Gaelic classes for adults are only second in importance. The teaching of Irish history also in schools and classes is vital to the welfare of the nation.

In this matter the schools have a much freer hand than they have in the teaching of Irish, and it is not clear that the freedom is freely used. The cultivation of Irish music, dancing, and games, and the fight against pernicious foreign literature come well within the scope of the Gaelic League's activities, and are worthy of support by all self-respecting Irish-men. The discouragement of emigration and intemperance is not exactly League work, yet its influence has been considerable in both these directions.

The support of Irish industries is one of the main planks in our platform, and ought to appeal to all. While others may have wavered on this question, the humble Gaelic Leaguer has for twenty years steadily purchased Irish goods, and has enabled our few manufacturers to hold their ground, and and in some cases, to make notable advances. At the present moment this steady demand for Irish goods is more important than ever. The huge drain of money from the country, very little of which is returned, makes it difficult for the Irish maker of goods to hold his own.

It is all the more important that the money over which we exercise control should be kept in the country. The League is providing for a special display of Irish-made goods in the Dublin shops during Samhain, viz., the first week of November, and we trust the Dublin public will purchase extensively. It is our business, O Citizens of Dublin, to live and maintain ourselves in Ireland, also to provide as far as possible that our children shall live and maintain themselves in Ireland, instead of, as heretofore, becoming the servants and servitors of every nation but their own.

We may not be able to make our country a great or wealthy nation, but we can be self-respecting, mind-free, and to a degree, independent. The Gaelic League works with a single eye to uplifting the nation along the lines indicated. It eschews party politics and sectarian controversies. Give it your moral and material support and you will be doing a good day's work for Ireland, and for your own and your children's welfare. The Gaelic League wants every citizen of Dublin to realize these facts about the position of Irish, and to co-operate with us in securing, as we think we can secure, that Irish shall be taught in every school in Dublin, and to every child, in every school in Dublin, and that it shall be taught to each child as a living language from the first day the child enters the school.

We assure you, fellow citizens, that this is possible in the National schools, under existing regulations, and is being done in certain schools in Belfast, Kerry, and elsewhere, and the result is that in three years, the school children are an Irish speaking community. To strengthen the hands of the League in this and other matters a scheme is on hand for a great Irish Revival week in Dublin, details of which will appear next week.

CU ULADH