At the same
time, it is interesting to see that the same efforts had already been at work in the second half of the 19th century. In the newspaper article from
The Graphic dating to 1883 (April 14) regarding the publication of the Gaelic Journal, we read about very similar issues than today:
The Gaelic Journal more than answers the promise of its prospectus. While the Dublin Exhibition was going on a Congress was held in Kildare Street, at which the desirability of starting such a journal was canvassed. The argument that has resulted in its publication was like the well-known one about swimming: "You never can learn unless you get into the water." It was backed up by a fact which may readily escape a resident in most parts of Ireland--that there are still readers of Gaelic enough to make it worth while for newspapers like the Tuam Herald and Tuam News to print some of their columns in old Irish text. The most noticeable feature of the meetings was the zeal (certainly not without knowledge) of the Ulstermen. One can well understand why so many men of English name, often only by one generation removed from English birth, should be out-spoken patriots; but that Belfast should be more enthusiastic about the old tongue than Cork or Limerick is as great a puzzle as Professor Blackie, when past middle age, learning Gaelic for the love of it. Yet it is so. Whoever planted, whether Father Nolan or Mr. Marcus Ward, jun., the latter gentleman (despite his very Saxon name) has done a great deal of the watering.
It is easy to smile at these efforts; to talk of galvanising one in articulo mortis; to note that M. Gaidoz, with all literary Europe at his back, can only bring out the Revue Celtique occasionally. The answer is: look at Wales. If Welsh has lasted, it is not because it escaped repression. Warner, almost the earliest pedestrian tourist, talks of "the Welsh lamp," a leaden weight, hung round the necks of school children who incautiously let slip a word of Cymric. But Eisteddfods are a fact, and a very interesting one; and Welshmen are distinctly the better because their language does more than barely hold its ground.
Of course, if the movement is to succeed in Ireland, it must be because the Irish intend that it shall. More is needed for the success than a sentimental liking for Gaelic literature, and the power of speaking more or less correctly a score or so of Irish phrases. Ireland wants her men like Dr. Blackie, who will bring cultured taste and ripe scholarship to the hard task of learning a so-called uncouth tongue... Irish speakers must become Irish-readers, and they must grow in numbers. The greatest fallacy of all is to talk of Gaelic speech being a hindrance in the world's race. Hungarians are just as successful in business or letters, though they are extra weighted with both Magyar and Slav, as they would be if they could only talk the language of Fatherland. But this means that we Irish, as a people, must really care about the matter, and must have enough determination (that quality in which some folks say we are deficient) to give ourselves a great deal of trouble about it...
It is not a matter about which we can blame the Saxon. If we care for our old speech, the Gaelic Union gives us a chance of doing something for it. There never was such a cheap sixpenny-worth as the Gaelic Journal; but subscribing to it is not enough, though it is something, and the 5s. 6d. a year is better than a deal of talk. We must study what it brings before us, if the "wordless bird-songs" are to become for us articulate speech...
H.S.F.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte learning Gaelic
Origins of the English breakfast tea
North polar exploration
Tragedy in Klondyke
The Long Walk of the Navajo
Sir Douglas Forsyth
Zulu victory over British troops
