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 IRELAND

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IRELAND

Agnes O'Farrelly, J. P. Craig, and Michael Mac- Riiaidhri (Rogers) are all story writers or novelists. D. O'Faherty, M. Timoney, Patrick O'Leary, M. Mac- Ruaidhri, the Rev. Dr. Sheehan, and the O'Malley brothers have all been rescuing Irish folk-lore both in prose and verse. The League abounds in gram- marians, a phase of its activity which recalls to us the Greek renaissance of the sixteenth century. Fathers O'Leary, O'Reilly, Edmund Hogan, S.J., Crehan, Dr. Bergin, Dr. Henry, P. McGinley, J. H. Lloyd, D. Foley, S. O'Cathain, and J. Craig have all worked on grammar as well as on other scholastic and literary subjects; while the Rev. Dr. Henebry, Father Hay- den, S.J., Dr. Quiggin, and Father Mullin have written upon Irish pronunciation and dialects. Voluminous writers on history and other subjects are Michael Breathnach (d. in October, 190S), Eoghan O'Neach- tain, and Sean O'Kelly. Father Dinneen is a lexicog- rapher, editor of texts, and miscellaneous writer. Father John C. MacErlean, S.J., R. Foley, and Tadhg O'Donoghue are all editors of texts; the latter is also a poet and a miscellaneous writer. Canon O'Leary, Father T. O'Kelly, T. Hayes, W. Ryan, P. O'Conaire, Dr. O'Beirne, and F. Partridge have all written plays; Fr. O'Kelly has written the libretto of an Irish opera which was produced in 1909.

The Gaelic League has also published editiones principes of the poetry of Owen Roe O'Sullivan, Se.-lghan Clarach MacDonnell, Pierce Ferriter, Geof- frey Keating, Geoffrey O'Donoghue of the Glen, Pierce Fitzgerald, Murphy of Raithineach, Colum Wallace, and others. The works of all these poets existed previously only scattered in manuscripts or in the mouths of the people until the League saved them. The Irish Texts Society, founded in London in 189S, has published ten handsome volumes of hitherto unprinted Iri.sh texts, including Keating's "History" in three volumes. T. O'Coneannon, M. Foley, Rev. P. O'Sullivan (a Protestant clergyman), P. Stanton, the late Denis Fleming, and others have been enriching Irish by translations from English and other languages. Nearly all the Catholic and Nationalist papers now publish more or less Irish in every issue, so there is little danger of the language ceasing to be written. Of 11,332 students who fol- lowed the various courses under the intermediate, or secondary, school system in 1908-09, 6085 took up Irish as one of their subjects. The language is also taught more or less satisfactorily in 3047 primary schools out of about 8538. Of the.se schools, how- ever, many belong to the more Protestant counties of the North of Ireland, and these have as yet had little to do with the new movement. The School of Irish Learning under Dr. Bergin, of which Dr. Kuno Meyer was the practical founder, gives higher university teaching in comparative philology, pho- nology, comparative grammar, and the reading of the old vellum MSS. Its courses in 1908-09 were attended by over 30 students, its journal "Eriu" and its "Anecdota Hibemica" are known to all Celtic scholars.

We may now briefly sum up what we have said alx)ut the native Gaelic literature. The Irish probalily learnt the use of letters in the second century, but did not use the Roman alphabet till the country was converted to Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries. The earliest existing manuscripts do not go back further than the eighth century, but the in- scrilied Ogham stones are centuries older than these. The early epics and sagas contain a substantially accurate picture of pagan times and of pagan manners and customs. The feeling of the Churcli was from the first thoroughly sympalhclic towards the native language and native scholarship. The number of existing Iri.sh maniiscripts is great, but it is difficult to say with accuracy what they contain, nor can they be certainly dated and sifted until Celtic studies have

made further progress. The introduction of Chris- tianity left its mark deeply upon the people and on the language. The Irish annals may be substantially relied on from about the fourth century onwards. The Irish had already highly developed the use of rhyme as early as the seventh century, and Zeuss, the father of Celtic learning, Constantino Nigra, and others ascribe the invention of rhyme to the Celts, but Thurneysen and others deny that. There has been a great loss of manuscripts in recent times, but owing to the literary revival brought about by the Gaelic League during the last fifteen years there is small fear of any further losses in this direction. Under the stimulus of the new literary movement dozens of modern Irish writers have sprung up, and a new literature of novels, stories, dramas, history, and poetry has arisen. This brings the story of Irish literature to a close. Whether the new movement will be an enduring one or not, no one can yet tell, but in 1909 the County C'ouncils (i. e. the elective governing bodies) of twenty counties, including the whole of Munster and Connacht, 130 urban an<l district councils out of about 170, the general council of county councils (the largest really representative body in Ireland), the corporations of Dublin and other cities, and the Convention of the Irish Race, held in February, 1909, at which were present between two and three thousand delegates from public bodies, branches of the United Irish League, and A. O. H., all passed resolutions asking the Senate of the new National University of Ireland to make a knowledge of Irish an essential for matricidation. From which it would appear that there is up to the present no falling off in Gaelic enthusiasm, but rather a desire to rebuild the nation, if possible, upon native lines.

Anglo-Iri.sh Literature. — When the Norman knights landed in Ireland they arrived speaking Nor- man French, but soon they dropped French, and, becoming assimilated with the natives, used Irish only as their common language. The Palesmen, however, and the inhabitants of some of the walled cities like Kilkenny must have spoken early English side by side with French. About the oldest book produced on Irish soil which contains written English is a vellum MS. of si.xty-four leaves in the British Museum marked Harl. 913, written in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, very probably at the Gray Abbey of Kildare, which contains among other writings no less than six- teen Old English pieces, some of which at least were composed in Ireland, for one is on the death of De Bermingham, the life-long enemy of the Irish, and another contains two Irish words, russin (Irish, ruisin, a luncheon) and corrin (Irish, cnirin, a pot or wallet). One piece is attributed to a Friai- Michel Kyldare, which would make it appear that the author was an Irishman. One or two other vellimi MSS. of the fif- teenth century also exist in English writing which may have been produced in Ireland, "A Conquest of Ireland", "Secreta Accrotorum", and the Lamhoth MS. 623, a kind of sixteenth-century miscellany, but with these very trifling exceptions, up to almost t he end of the sixteenth century all literature written in Ireland had been either in Irish or in Latin, Strange as it may appear, the Latin language, although it yiel<lcd to Irish in the eiglith century as a Uterary medium, was nevertlieless almost universally learned in Ireland as a spoken language by every one of any pretensions to breeding or culture. Blessed Ednunul Campion, who wrote his " History of Ireland" in l.')71, writes thus of the "raeere Irish": "Without either precepts or obser- vation of congruity, they speake Latine like a vulgar laiig\iage learned in their common schools of Leach- eraft and law."

The earliest books of importance written in Ireland in the Krij;lish language were probably Spenser's " View of Hid ])resc!it stale of Ireland" and Ilanmer's "Chronicle". In the seventeenth century, however,