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THE JAMES D. PHELAN 
CELTIC COLLECTION 




IRISHMEN OF TO-DAY 



DOUGLAS HYDE 



DOUGLAS HYDE 

^n ctiAOit)Tn AOit)inn 



BY 



DIARMID O COBHTHAIGH 






MAUNSEL & CO., LTD. 

DUBLIN AND LONDON 
1917 



FHEUN 



\)h^y5.mci.M^i-^^^if^ 



PREFACE 

When the movement for the revival of the 
Irish language was conceived, its founders, 
men of vision though they were, could 
hardly have foreseen the manifold aspects 
which their offspring would assume. 

At first it was simply an effort to call 
back the spirit of an earlier Ireland. As the 
movement spread other reasons for the re- 
vival were realised, and to-day a hundred 
arguments based on its literary, educative, 
and even commercial value, have been ad- 
vanced with effect. But the fact remains, 
and something of the first inspiration has 
flashed back with its perception, that one 
man learns Irish because he feels that he is 
doing a service to European scholarship by 
saying ''c6xMixim of^c" instead of "come on," 
for nine hundred and ninety-nine who learn it 
on a blind instinct " because it's our own." 

It is comparatively easy to lay before 
men a reasoned policy and to appeal to 
their minds ; but to lead a movement which 
rests its strength on calling forth half- 
forgotten sentiments, to awaken sub-con- 

810297 



PREFACE 



scious memories is a work which can only be 
accomplished by a man whose whole being 
vibrates in sympathy with his fellow men. 

To anyone acquainted with Douglas Hyde 
in the splendid days of his American tour, 
or in the hardly less strenuous but more 
thrilling period of the fight for compulsory 
Irish in the National University, it is fas- 
cinating to conceive of the brilliant per- 
sonality of the man lying dormant in the 
shy and lonely boy who fished and shot and 
sat by country firesides in his native Ros- 
common. It was there that the child of an 
alien tradition fell under the spell of Irish 
culture. Already perhaps he had the charm, 
when he chose to exercise it, which earned 
for him, his famous pseudonym " An 
Craoibhin Aoibhinn,"( which translated means 
" The DeHghtful Little Branch,") and the 
genius for friendliness, a touch of which is 
characteristic in all the distinguished figures 
of the Gaelic League. 

Men of his race, aware that once ap- 
proached the Irish spell was irresistible, made 
stringent rules to save themselves and each 
other, but Douglas Hyde, who was never in 
his life afraid to be charmed, surrendered 

vi. 



PREFACE 



unconditionally and got so good a reward 
from his captor that he became for many the 
embodiment of the charm and practical 
idealism of his cause. 

It has been stated in this book that, but 
for him, the language would have died, 
and though at first sight this may seem an 
exaggeration, there is a large share of truth 
in it. A movement for national revival, 
unless forwarded in a spirit of human sym- 
pathy as distinguished from intellectual 
sympathy, may easily become academic and 
cease to attract the young and ardent 
to its ranks. An Craoibhin is a type 
of his country in the appeal of his eternal 
youthfulness to the young. A northern 
Gaelic Leaguer has told of how he went 
to the first meeting held to found the 
Belfast branch of the Gaelic League. 
" When I saw him up on the platform," he 
said, with a heat of loyalty in his voice 
which is remarkable without being singular 

*' t)A -661$ tiom 5tift> 6 An i^eA^ bA t>t\eA$tA A|\ t)t\uim 
An "oorhAin e — Aguf bA eA*6, teif . U-dnAig f e AnuAf in 
Aice liom Ajuf 6 Ag -out AmA6 — Aguf CAifbeAn|:Ai't) 
f6 f eo -ofb Cotfi 65 T beAg a biof — bA teof^ -torn mo 
t^rh -00 Cuf\ AmA6 Af^ imeAlt a COca — bA teof\ fAn.'* 

vii. 



PREFACE 



'* He seemed to me the finest man on the ridge 
of the world — and he was too. He came down 
near me while he was going out — and this 
will shew you how little and young I was — 
it was enough for me to put my hand on 
the edge of his coat, it was indeed." 

It is easy to multiply instances of An 
Craoibhin's effect upon others, but more 
interesting to try and define it. A friend was 
once arguing with him about some question 
involving the phrase " ordinary men." Hyde 
placed himself in their ranks. " But you are 
not an ' ordinary man,' a Chraoibhin," the 
friend hastened to assert. " Indeed I am," 
he replied, " that is the reason I am able 
to persuade him, I understand him." Upon 
reflection, it appears that there is a sense in 
which this is true. There is no question here 
of the typical strong man of Irish history, 
the Owen Roe or the Parnell, men aloof, to 
be obeyed, generals of an army. An Craoi- 
bhin may more aptly be compared to the con- 
ductor of an orchestra during the first rehear- 
sals of a brilliant and difficult piece of music. 
His necessary quality is the complete under- 
standing of each part, his equipment a large 
share in the composing of it and a per- 

viii. 



PREFACE 



sonality fitted to inspire his musicians with 
the same self-forgetting desire for the suc- 
cessful performance of the whole as he 
himself displays. The full beauty of the 
music is not yet apparent ; there is always 
a deal of drudgery and wearisome repetition 
in a rehearsal, despite passages which already 
are of brilliant effect. But the conductor 
does not relinquish his baton until he has 
evoked a spirit of harmony and understand- 
ing between himself and the orchestra. 

One of An Craoibhin's disciples wrote a 
poem, in which he said : — 

Do •b-AtlAf mo full 
1f mo CttJ-Af 'GO "Cun-Af 
Do CtMi^t)-Af mo 6foit)e 
If mo mi^n -00 rhuCxif 
Do tugAf mo Cut 
/At^ Ax\ xMftins x)0 6timAf 

Do ttis-Af mo $ntaif 

>At\ Ax\ sniorh •oo-Cim. 

(I blinded my eyes, 

And I closed my ears, 

I hardened my heart, 

And I smothered my desire, 

I turned my back 

On the vision I had shaped, 

I have turned my face. 

To the deed that I see). 
ix. 



PREFACE 



An Craoibhin is the very opposite to this 
in his method. In contrast he appears as 
the ordinary man he asserts himself to be, 
and all his magic lies in his being the ordi- 
nary man on an immense scale. He has not 
given his life to any one "sniorh ■oo-eim," but 
rather to the creation of an atmosphere in 
which the genius of the Gael can live and 
blossom for the good of Ireland ; and no one 
who looks at his work can doubt that his 
life as President of the Gaelic League was 
given as generously as the life of any man 
since the battle was joined between the 
Gael and the Gall. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

YOUTH . . . . .1 



CHAPTER II 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE GAELIC 

LEAGUE . . . .16 

CHAPTER III 
THE GAELIC LEAGUE . . .37 

CHAPTER IV 
EDUCATION . . . .60 

CHAPTER V 
AMERICA : THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION . 79 

CHAPTER VI 
HYDE AS AN AUTHOR . . .97 

CHAPTER VII 
RETIREMENT . . . .116 



CHAPTER I 

YOUTH. 

In the beginning of the year 1916 there 
was a great pubUc meeting held in the Mansion 
House, DubHn, to protest against the with- 
drawal of governmental grants for the 
teaching of Irish. The place was thronged, 
the audience boisterously enthusiastic. The 
crowded room shook with applause or seemed 
captured by the very spirit of fury as the 
speakers aroused the enthusiasm or the anger 
of the audience. 

But whether it were during the exuberant 
applause or the angry protests, one who could 
detach himself from the feelings of the 
moment could see in the eager, determined 
faces around him a final justification of the 
life of An Craoibhin Aoibhin, Douglas Hyde, 
LL.D. 

Hyde spoke forcibly and temperately. 
There were many speakers, and some were 
hot and furious ; some spoke of matters 
other than the defence of the Irish language, 
and their fiery words awoke burning feelings 

1 



YOUTH 



in their audience ; but it was Hyde who 
was the central figure, for it was Hyde's hfe 
work that the meeting was summoned to 
upheld 

Amid the ardent speeches and the im- 
passioned interruptions of the audience there 
seemed to arise a vision of past meetings. 
Behind the meeting one could see the shadow 
of years of patient work in small committee 
rooms, and of countless meetings throughout 
the country, that each added to each made 
up the strength of the Gaelic movement. 

In the eighties of the nineteenth century 
the Irish Language seemed at its last gasp, 
and few would have prophesied that it could 
outlive the century except in the mouths of 
a very few old folk. Irishmen watched its 
decline with indifference born of ignorance. 
A few struggling societies tried to keep up 
an interest in the language, but their mem- 
bership was insignificant, and their work, 
though valuable in republishing old manu- 
scripts, found no echo in the minds of their 
countrymen. Such monies as they had were 
largely the gift of men who took a purely 
academic interest in Irish, and, as he who 
pays the piper may call the tune, the societies 
confined their attention to works of scholar- 
ship. 

As for a century or more the only attempt 
at Irish teaching or publishing had been the 

2 



YOUTH 



work of proselytising societies, the Roman 
Catholic population of Ireland had been 
taught to look with the greatest suspicion 
on strangers who attempted to learn their 
language, a suspicion which died slowly. 
No attempt was made to revive the dying 
tongue, except among a few dilettantes. 

When Hyde came to Dublin he saw that 
such work would not lead to anything 
beyond mere scholarship. He saw that the 
only way to stay the decay of the language 
was to arouse a general feeling for Irish as 
Irish, and to |teach Irishmen that Irish was 
an essential part of their nationality. 

With this idea he started a campaign of 
education in the country which produced a 
great educational revolution. Travelling 
over Ireland from Cork to Belfast and from 
Dublin to Westport, he held a series of 
meetings. He found individuals every- 
where whose enthusiasm was easily aroused, 
who had implanted in them the instincts 
of the language and the race so strongly 
that they only needed a suggestion to 
make them see all that the Irish language 
meant to Ireland. These people flocked to 
meet Hyde, and he taught them the para- 
mount importance of preserving their tongue. 
Enthusiasts, fired by his example and 
teaching, carried on the movement. In all 
parts of the country small bodies gathered 
together to teach Ireland that she was losing 

3 



YOUTH 



with her language not only a means of 
national expression but one of the very 
essentials of her nationality. The Irish were 
not long in learning the lesson. They had 
lost their language through ignorance, and 
that only for a generation or two ; when 
they learned its importance in national life 
they set to work to undo the evil of their 
neglect. 

As the idea of preserving the Irish tongue 
spread through the country every kind of 
man seemed to see in the revival of the 
language a means of furthering his own par- 
ticular national aspiration ; and he saw 
rightly, inasmuch as the Irish Language 
movement helped on every other movement 
for the good of Ireland. It aroused men to 
a new interest in their own land and, even 
apart from the language, brought many 
benefits in its train. 

The extravagance of some reformers who 
embraced the Irish language as furthering 
their own causes raised a smile on the faces 
of those who heard them ; as for instance, the 
man who said that Irish was the best lan- 
guage on earth because no heresy had ever 
been spoken therein, or the temperance 
enthusiast who said that the Irish never had 
any drinking songs because the old Gaels 
never drank intoxicating liquors ! But even 
these extremists showed by their very ex- 
travagance that the language movement had 

4 



YOUTH 



an universal appeal to Irishmen and that each 
man saw in it the reflection of his own 
highest good. 

Thus, the philologist sees in the language 
a very highly developed tongue capable 
of expressing the nicest shades of mean« 
ing ; the socialist, the bringing forward 
of ideas in which all Irishmen have an equal 
heritage ; the aristocrat remembers the high 
chivalry of the Irish Chiefs ; the religious 
mind thinks of the countless saints of 
Ireland ; the youths and maidens think of 
the revival of Irish national life, with its 
dances and songs ; and even the toper can 
rejoice at the descriptions of old Irish 
banquets, and hope that in a re-GaeUcised 
Ireland the ale and mead will circulate freely* 
Music, too, smiled on the Irish revival ; the 
Irish pipes, sweeter in tone than the war 
pipes of the Scottish Highlands, were once 
again heard with pleasure in parts of the 
country where they had almost been for- 
gotten. Old airs and songs were collected. 
Irish melodies and songs have done much 
to revive the popular interest in Irish 
through music, but music has not played 
so large a part in the Irish revival as it has 
in the revival of Scottish Gaelic. 

In brief, all the finer elements of the Irish 
character were drawn out by the Gaelic 
movement ; the life of the country seemed 
quickened afresh. With the language came 



YOUTH 



a new interest in all things Irish. A new 
outlet was opened for the development of 
nationality, which had suffered a check in 
the collapse of the Parnell movement. The 
political movement associated with Parnell 
having become intimately connected with the 
agrarian question, had, to some extent, 
deadened men's minds on the purely intel- 
lectual side. The last movement associating 
literature with nationality had been the 
Young Ireland movement, with its group of 
writers, Davis, Mangan, and others. Then 
came the revolutionary Fenian movement 
which, though it embraced many men of high 
intellect, did not depend on literature for its 
inspiration, but was content to follow on the 
path prepared by the Young Irelanders. When 
the political and agrarian Parnell movement 
suffered defeat with the Home Rule Bill of 
1893, the country seemed to be dead in 
intellect. 

At this critical moment the Gaelic League 
opened up a new avenue of national thought 
more purely intellectual and less political 
than any in the history of the country. It 
was at this point that Hyde first became 
intimately and publicly associated with Irish 
ideals. 

Once started, the movement caught the 
imagination of the country, and in the 
position of Irish in the National University 
of Ireland and the universal i^^dignation at 

6 



YOUTH 



the threat to withdraw the grants for Irish 
teaching, is a monument to the Irish revival 
of the end of the nineteenth century, and 
through it to An Craoibhin. 

The family of Hyde is of Norman origin. 
When the Hydes came to Ireland they 
settled in Munster, and Castle Hyde on the 
Blackwater was in the hands of the family 
until quite recent years. There is a story told 
by James Stephens the Fenian, that after 
Smith O'Brien's rising Sir Patrick Hyde be- 
friended him, but it is possible that this 
was an embroidery of Stephens' dotage. 

Douglas Hyde, the youngest son of the 
Rev. Arthur Hyde, Rector of Frenchpark, 
was brought up from his earliest childhood 
in a largelylrish-speaking community, and was 
accustomed to mix freely with the peasantry 
of the district. He was, and is, a good shot 
and a keen fisherman, and this, together 
with an unusually genial temperament, 
opened the hearts of the people to him. He 
was never at school except for a short stay 
of ten days at a school in Dublin, when he 
caught measles and never returned. 

The Rev. Arthur Hyde must have been a 
good classical scholar and linguist, for An 
Craoibhin learnt from him until he entered 
Trinity College, and it is impossible to read 
his more serious books without seeing that 
he is a thorough master of Latin and Greek. 

7 



YOUTH 



We probably have to thank the attack of 
measles for much that is admirable in Hyde, 
because it sent him back to Roscommon 
and prevented his becoming as Anglicised 
as most Dublin schoolboys. It is perhaps 
too easy to say that this or that trivial 
incident was the turning point in a man's 
life ; in fact it is very difficult to say what 
made him what he is. Thus Hyde may have 
felt more eager to revive Gaelic because of 
his long childhbod spent among Gaelic 
speakers, but he must always have had in 
him the Gaelic spirit as the master impulse 
of his nature. We cannot allow a measle 
germ to claim any important share in the 
formation of the Gaelic League, though to 
many of its enemies the rapid spread of the 
League throughout Ireland must have ap- 
peared like the spread of an infectious disease. 

To have at once the will and the oppor- 
tunity is not the lot of every man, so Hyde 
may consider himself fortunate in that he 
was given abundant chances to exercise his 
will to learn Irish. He, therefore, at an early 
age knew much about his native country 
that was in those days denied to those who 
knew no Irish. The traditional tales of the 
country, tales of the pagan heroes and of the 
early Christian saints, which may now be 
procured in several different translations, 
were then practically unknown except to Irish 
speakers. The average boy of the upper classes 

8 



YOUTH 



then as now went to school in England and 
learnt nothing about his native country. When 
he came back to his home for the holidays he 
was not encouraged to learn anything of the 
history of the land in which he lived, and 
probably regarded the tenants on his estate as 
so many potential but pleasant murderers. 

Before he came to Trinity College Hyde 
must have seen among his neighbours in the 
country much of the indifferent or hostile 
spirit of the Irish gentleman to Gaelic. In 
Trinity he was surrounded by this spirit. 
Many of his later speeches and writings shew 
that in the University he always regarded 
himself as an alien in a hostile place. One 
cannot but think that this feeling must have 
arisen largely in the imagination of a youth 
brought up in semi-isolation from those of 
his own age. It is impossible for anyone 
who has met An Craoibhin to believe that 
he was anything but popular in College. The 
nature of the man is such as to disarm hos- 
tiHty and to call forth love on all sides. Had 
he carried on a controversy by letter or set 
speeches with his fellow undergraduates, he 
might have been thought a pugnacious fellow. 
But, in College, intercourse is not carried on 
at long ranges, and in a hand to hand en- 
counter men might disagree with, but could 
not dislike Hyde. One thing is certain, the 
hostility of his fellow undergraduates was 
not enough to upset their sense of justice. 

9 



YOUTH 



He obtained the Silver Medal for oratory of 
the Historical Society, a distinction which is 
given solely on the votes of those who listen 
to the speeches. 

The dislike of the Board of Trinity College 
to all Gaelic studies, a dislike which the 
pressure of the past few years has done 
something to modify, but which was in 
Hyde's day universal in that body, made 
it his enemy from the very beginning. 
The Board of Trinity was the first "Board" 
with which Hyde came into conflict ; 
since then he has been the remorseless 
opponent of many " Boards." There is 
scarcely a " Board " in Ireland which has 
not been warped as the result of Hyde's 
attacks, and occasionally, under very severe 
pressure, bent slightly in the direction of 
Irish. Hating the governing body of the 
College, it is natural that Hyde should not 
have felt at ease under its control, but, to 
repeat, it would need much evidence to 
convince one that he was not liked by the 
vast majority of the under graduates. 

Hyde went to Trinity College with a view 
to taking Orders, and entered the Divinity 
School. After a short course in this school, 
he decided that he was not suited for clerical 
life and abandoned his original intention. 
Mr. Crook, who knew him in College, 
wrote a short sketch of his acquaintance 
with An Craoibhin at the University. He 

10 



YOUTH 



had known him for some time before he 
discovered that Hyde knew Irish. In the 
course of conversation Crook, who was a 
classical scholar, was struck by Hyde's know- 
ledge of the classics, a knowledge wider, 
though possibly less minute, than that of the 
average classical man. He quotes a short 
conversation : — 

" You do know a lot of languages, Hyde. How many 
do you know ? English, German, Hebrew, Latin, 
Greek, and French, I suppose ? " 

" Yes, and I can read Italian ; but the language I 
know best is Irish." 

" ' Irish ! * I exclaimed in astonishment ; ' do you 
know Irish ? ' ' Yes,' he said quietly, ' I dream in 
Irish.' " 

It is easy to imagine the astonishment of 
Mr. Crook, who thought of Irish as a language 
known by a few Sizars and divinity prizemen, 
who were as often as not ashamed of their 
knowledge. He was amazed when Hyde 
produced a huge bundle of manuscript poems 
in Irish which he had written. Crook also 
tells of a conversation Hyde had in Gaelic 
with a piper of a Scottish Regiment whose 
band was playing at the College races, and 
of an encounter with a German scholar who 
had come to Ireland knowing Irish but no 
English, and who was as astonished as he 
was disgusted to find that he had to learn 
English to make himself understood at his 
hotel. This last experience, painful as it is 

11 



YOUTH 



to an Irishman to tell, was repeated by Dr. 
Karl Marstrander within the last few years. 

Hyde's blood must have boiled within him 
as he heard the foreigner tell of how he had 
come to Ireland to perfect his knowledge of 
the Irish language and found that he had to 
speak English to get the simplest necessaries 
of life. It may be of interest to say that 
Hyde's acquaintance of the College Park 
shewed his appreciation of meeting one who 
could speak to him in Irish by borrowing 
money and taking himself off. 

Hyde's time in the University had brought 
him in direct contact with much of the un- 
Irish side of Irish life. 

A short digression is here necessary to 
explain the words un-Irish. It is an un- 
doubted fact that in Trinity College the 
prevailing spirit is intensely Irish. No one 
there can imagine he is anywhere but in 
Ireland ; an Englishman is distinctly a 
foreigner. But there is also a feeling that, 
though when confronted with a foreigner the 
Trinity man is as Irish as possible, still he 
is generally drawn from a class that in its 
own country regards itself as apart from the 
rest of the land. It is easy for those who 
have not been in Trinity to say it is un- 
Irish or anti-Irish, the ** university of the 
Garrison " or "an English outpost in 
Ireland." Such phrases have some truth when 
used with regard to the teaching of the 

12 



YOUTH 



college, especially some years ago. It is a 
matter of gratification to every Trinity man 
who is interested in Gaelic Ireland to see 
the gradual but decided change in the tone 
of teaching in Trinity, especially in such 
subjects as History. 

The general tone of undergraduate life is 
Irish with the limitation that it is not con- 
sciously Irish. This is the fault of an educa- 
tion which excludes all mention of Ireland. 
It is against such education that the Gaelic 
League made its battle, and rightly ; for 
how can a man love, respect or serve his 
country when all he has been taught about 
her could be written on a single sheet of 
notepaper. What there is of un- Irish spirit 
in Trinity is the result of ignorance. That 
it is ignorant of its own country is perhaps 
the most damning thing that could be said 
of any University. 

Hyde, surrounded by this mental atmos- 
phere, burned to change it and to shew to his 
countrymen that they had a country. In 
Trinity he was brought into direct touch 
with this ignorantly un-Irish spirit ; but it 
was not confined to Trinity, all over the 
country there was a depth of ignorance about 
Ireland and Irish that could hardly be 
paralleled in any other land. Education 
was, and still is, the root of the whole matter. 
Hyde, with exceptional insight, saw this in 
its naked reality, and determined to do 

13 



YOUTH 



what he could to redress it ; but it is better 
to leave the consideration of this to a later 
chapter. It is only brought in here to shew 
the wide-reaching nature of the influence of 
Trinity College on Hyde's outlook. He must 
have felt like a young Hercules when he 
looked at the Augean Stable of ignorance 
which he must clear if he were to reach the 
foundation on which Gaelic Ireland had been 
built, and on which any native Irish revival 
must be erected. 

Soon after graduating Hyde went to 
Canada to teach English literature in the 
State University of New Brunswick in the 
place of his friend Mr. W. F. Stockley, now 
the well-known Professor of University 
College, Cork. He did not stay long in 
Canada, though he liked the land. One poem 
of his about Canada gives his feelings towards 
that great country. There are four stanzas, 
but the last two give the spirit of the poem : 

The ravaging ^vinter is over, 

The Wizard of Silence is fled, 
And violets peep from their cover, 

And daisies are raising their head, 
Earth blushes to life hke a lover, 

And wakes in her emerald bed, 
And she and the heavens above her 

In torrents of sunshine are wed, 
Forgetting the swoon of the snow. 

By the pole slope that Canada faces 

The ice giants hurtle and reel, 
For her seven months winter she cases 

Her land in a casket of steel. 
14 



YOUTH 



Yet I pine for her mighty embraces 
In the home of the moose and the seal, 

And I pine for her beautiful places 
And sad is the feeling I feel 

When snowflakes remind me of her. 

The words about "her seven months winter"" 
brought down on his head much comical 
wrath from the Canadians, but the poem 
was copied into nearly all their papers. 

While in Canada Hyde studied the Red 
Indians, especially the Melicites. He learnt 
much of their customs and folk lore. But 
the chief relic of his sojourn in Canada 
known to Irishmen is a photograph in a fur 
cap, which has more often been reproduced 
than any other photograph of this much 
photographed man. 

He married Miss Kurtz soon after his 
return to Ireland. 



15 



CHAPTER II 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE 
GAELIC LEAGUE. 

Before entering on the important chapter 
in Hyde's Hfe, the founding of the Gaelic 
League, it is well to consider the history of 
the Irish language for the past few hundred 
years. 

The EngUsh Government in Ireland had 
from its earliest days done its utmost to 
suppress the Irish language. 

This was but part of a general scheme to 
anglicise Ireland. Everything which dis- 
tinguished the Irish from their conquerors 
was proscribed. Language, dress, and cus- 
toms alike were forbidden. English settlers 
were poured into the country, but when they 
arrived they rapidly adopted the native 
habits and language. Laws were passed 
forbidding the immigrants from marrying 
or even holding intercourse with the Irish, 
but all these laws were of no avail. After a 
€ouple of generations there was hardly a 
family of planters but lost every trace of its 
English origin. 

Though the efforts of the Government did 
not succeed in killing the spoken tongue, 
they were effectual in disturbing the life of 
the country. Though even the sons of the 

16 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



English settlers spoke Irish they were not 
in a position to set up permanent schools and 
colleges in Ireland. Such seats of learning 
as the Irish had were always liable to be 
raided. Hence it followed that there was 
little printed matter in the Irish tongue. 
Practically all Irish books were in manu- 
script, and though there were many thou- 
sands of manuscripts in Ireland, the greater 
number of which have been lost or destroyed, 
there can have been comparatively few 
copies compared to the number of printed 
books in Latin and English. 

As Hyde puts it in his Literary History of 
Ireland (page 534), 

" The Irish, having no press of their own in Ireland 
(though they had some outside it), were obliged to 
print and set up all their books abroad, chiefly at 
Louvain, Antwerp, Rome and Paris. Any attempts to 
introduce founts of Irish type in the teeth of the English 
Government would, I think, have been futile, so that, 
except for the works she was able to print in Irish type 
abroad, and afterwards smuggle in, Ireland during the 
seventeenth century was thrown nearly a couple of 
hundred years out of the world's course, by having to 
use manuscripts instead of printed books." 

The first fount of Irish type in Ireland was 
made at Queen Elizabeth's order, and a small 
Irish grammar was printed for her. The 
first Irish printing, on a large scale, was the 
translation of the Scriptures by Bishops 
Daniel and Bedell. Thus printing in Irish 
was early associated with proselytising; there 

17 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



was no chance for the native Uterature to 
see the Hght in printed form in Ireland. 

As learning formed but a small part of the 
education of a gentleman in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, the majority of 
the Irish gentlemen, though they spoke Irish, 
did not make any effort to have books 
printed for themselves. The small number 
who took any interest in books were con- 
tented to read Latin or English. That is to 
say of the Anglo-Irish and those of the Irish 
who had come under their influence. The 
Irish still had traditions of learning, but the 
devastating wars of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries made it difficult for any 
Irishman to publish books. 

There was a revival of learning in Ireland 
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
when Keating's History and the Annals of 
the Four Masters, two of the most important 
works written in Ireland, were compiled. 
There was also a revival in poetry, but 
nearly all in manuscript and not printed 
until a much later date. Many of the manu- 
scripts perished before their contents could 
be saved. 

In the government of Ireland from Dublin, 
English was the language used, though in 
Dublin itself Irish was very commonly 
spoken. Practically the whole staff of 
permanent officials were Englishmen. A 
strenuous effort was made to Anglicise the 

18 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



heads of important Irish famiUes. Thus 
Hugh O'Neill was educated as a hostage in 
England. He lived to be one of the greatest 
of Irish leaders, but he had first to learn 
Irish, which he had almost forgotten. The 
great Duke of Ormond was also educated 
in England, and never spoke Irish with ease, 
though he could understand it. 

When the Irish and Anglo-Irish Chiefs 
assembled in 1642 at the Confederation of 
Kilkenny, both Irish and English seem to 
have been used indifferently. Some of the 
members, for example Conor Maguire, Bishop 
of Clogher, could not speak English with ease ; 
but it is noticeable that Castlehaven, an 
Englishman, in his memoirs makes no men- 
tion of finding it difficult to make himself 
understood, or of the Irish language at all. 
This may have been because Irish was so 
accepted a tongue that it was not necessary 
to mention it. All the printing done for the 
confederation was in Enghsh. Rinnucini, 
the Papal Nuncio, mentions that he spoke 
and was spoken to in Latin, but some of his 
staff learned Gaelic. 

Though Irish was much spoken by all 
classes in Ireland up to the middle of the 
seventeenth century, the invasion of Crom- 
wellite and WilHamite planters and adven- 
turers soon altered this. A great proportion 
of the old landowners were dispossessed of 
their property and Enghsh and Scottish 

19 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



settlers put in their place. Irish speaking 
ceased among the upper classes until, by the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, it was 
the rare exception for a member of them to 
know Irish. 

Still, Irish was the tongue of the majority 
of the population, though a large number of 
the Irish speakers could speak some English 
also. It is in the last century that the great 
decay in the Irish language took place. 
This must be ascribed in a measure to 
Daniel O'Connell. The great democrat never 
realised the importance of Irish to Ireland. 
He himself was born and brought up in a 
district where Irish is still freely spoken. He 
spoke to audiences nine-tenths of whom were 
accustomed to speak Irish as their language 
of daily intercourse. He could have carried 
on his whole movement for Catholic Emanci- 
pation in Irish had he chosen to do so. 
But he did not. Though on a few occasions 
he spoke in Irish, he chose not to give a 
Gaelic trend to Irish thought. He perhaps 
regarded English as the more aristocratic 
language. 

The materialistic school of philosophy and 
political economy was at the height of its 
influence in Europe during O'ConnelFs life- 
time and doubtless had much to do with his 
neglect of Irish. 

Except Davis, the men of the Young Ireland 
movement took small interest in Gaelic* 

20 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



Mangan, it is true, adapted some Gaelic 
poems into English, but he himself did not 
know Gaelic and simply wrote adaptations 
of Irish poems translated to him word for 
word by John O'Daly and O'Curry. 

Thomas Davis, on the other hand, was 
one of the first to realise the importance of 
Gaelic to Ireland. It is worth while to quote 
a few lines from his essay, " Our National 
Language." 

*' What business has the Russian for the rippKng 
language of Italy or India ? How could the Greek 
distort his organs and his soul to speak Dutch upon 
the sides of Hymettus or the Head of Salamis, or on 
the waste where once was Sparta ? And is it befitting 
the fiery, delicate-organed Celt to abandon his beautiful 
tongue, docile and spirited as an Arab, ' sweet as music, 
strong as the wave ' — is it befitting to him to abandon 
this wild hquid speech for the mongrel of a hundred 
breeds called English, which, powerful though it be, 
creaks and bangs about the Celt who tries to use it ? 

" A people without a language of its own is only half 
a nation. A nation should guard its language more 
than its territories — 'tis a surer barrier, and more 
important frontier, than fortress or river. . . . 

" What ! give up the tongue of Ollamh Fodhla and 
Brian Boru, the tongue of McCarthy and of the O'Nials, 
the tongue of Sarsfield's, Curran's, Mathews' and 
O'Connell's boyhood, for that of Strafford and Poynings, 
Sussex, Kirk and CromweU ! 

" No, oh no ! the 'brighter days shall surely come' and 
the green flag shall wave on our towers, and the sweet old 
language be heard once more in college, mart and senate.'* 

Davis went on to advocate bi-lingual 
newspapers and the teaching of Irish in the 

21 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



schools of the Irish speaking parts, in his day 
a very large proportion of the country. But 
the brightest spirit of the Young Ireland 
movement did not live to continue his 
teaching. His followers were many, but this 
side of his teaching they seem to have missed. 
The " young husbandman of Erin's fruitful 
seed time " was taken from his country 
before he could do more than scatter the 
first seeds of his creed of nationality, and 
some of them fell on barren ground. 

Before passing from Davis it should be 
mentioned that his vivid imagery and style 
are curiously akin to that of Hyde, as all 
who have listened to Hyde's speech must 
see. 

The Fenians also neglected Irish as Irish, 
though they printed a small manual of pike 
drill in Gaelic* 

It is curious and lamentable that the 
revolutionary bodies in Ireland did not make 
more use of Gaelic, as it was, until the middle 
of the nineteenth century, generally spoken 
in most counties in Ireland. The idea of the 
value of a language as a national asset seems, 
except for Davis, not to have been thought 
of even by the most intelligent persons. 

Neglected and despised by those who 
should naturally be expected to foster it, 
the Irish language was attacked in the most 

* I can find no definite inf cwTnation about this manual, and 
Monly speak of it from hearsay. 

22 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



ruthless manner by the system of teaching 
introduced into Ireland under the control of 
the " Board of National Education," a body 
in whose name the word " Board " was the 
only appropriate one. Anyone who has 
followed the language movement in Ireland 
even in the most perfunctory way is familiar 
with the attitude of the Board towards 
nationality and education. It is hardly 
necessary to refer to Bishop Whateley's 
proscribing Scott's 

" Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said. 
This is my own, my native land ! " 

as being too national in spirit to be per- 
mitted in the Irish schools. 

The schools controlled by this Board were 
spread all over Ireland, and formed the only 
means of education possible to the unfor- 
tunate Irish. In the " National Schools " 
children were beaten for speaking Irish. 
They were taught to despise and hate their 
native language, and their parents, never 
taught to value it themselves, looked on the 
introduction of English and the destruction 
of Irish as a sign of progress and culture. 
Honour should be given to the memory of 
Archbishop McHale, who would not allow 
this system to be introduced into his diocese 
because it was against the Irish language. 
But what can one man, even an Archbishop, 
do, unsupported by public opinion ? 

23 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



The Irish language, thus attacked with 
determination, and unsupported by those 
to whom it should have looked for support, 
was not able to withstand these attacks ; 
in the half century from 1840 to 1890 the 
language was reduced from the general 
tongue of the people to that of a few peasants 
in obscure parts of the land. 

What a mine of historical and literary 
jewels was lost to Ireland with the decay of 
her language ! There are rich remains of 
all ages, from the fifth century of this era, 
down to the last century, but these can only 
be a tithe of what was written. It is not 
possible to throw the whole blame for this 
loss on the English Government. The 
Government undoubtedly had the will to 
destroy every vestige of Irish civilisation 
and literature, but if the Irish people them- 
selves had stood by their language as they 
stood by their faith it would have been 
impossible for any Government to destroy 
it. But the value of a National language 
to a people was not appreciated until recent 
years. It was not appreciated by the mass 
of Irishmen until the very end of the nine- 
teenth century. How they came to appre- 
ciate it is the history of An Craoibhin. 

As has been said, there were societies 
devoted to the study of the Irish Language 
from a purely scholarly point of view long 

24 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



before the movement for the revival of Irish 
as a spoken language. It would be ungrateful 
not to give some slight sketch of these 
societies which undoubtedly did some good 
work in the way of publishing Irish manu- 
scripts. 

Among these one of the most important 
was the Ossianic Society, which was formed 
in 1853, and which published six volumes. 
It is interesting that Mr. Smith O'Brien, on 
his return from exile, though he had seen the 
failure of his hopes for Ireland, saw in the 
language a means of serving his country. 
Urged by O'Donovan, he learnt Irish and 
became president of the Ossianic Society. 
But though Smith O'Brien learnt to speak 
and write Irish, the Ossianic Society, or the 
other smaller societies formed for similar 
purposes, did not attempt to preserve or 
help the spoken language of Ireland. It was 
considered enough to edit and publish manu- 
scripts. 

The first Society formed for the purpose 
of saving the spoken language was the 
" Society for the Preservation of the Irish 
Language," founded in 1876. The early 
members of this Society included Father 
John Nolan, David Comyn, and T. O'Neill 
Russell. Both Cardinal Logue and Arch- 
bishop Walsh were supporters of the Society. 

This Society did a great deal of hard work 
for the Irish Language, and actually suc- 

25 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



ceeded in inducing the Boards of National 
and Intermediate Education to put Irish 
on their programmes in 1878, the year Hyde 
joined the Society. 

A fee of 10s. was allowed for each Pass in 
Irish, and the Irish revivalists of that day 
thought that they saw the beginning of the 
revival of the language. Why did nothing 
come of all this ? At the very moment when 
the Society for the Preservation of the Irish 
Language seemed to be in a fair way to 
achieve its ends dissensions arose. 

There was a sharp division among its 
members on the point of whether Old, 
Middle, or Modern Irish should have the 
chief attention of the Society. In 1878, 
when the dissensions came to such a pitch 
that the members were no longer able to 
work together, a number seceded and formed 
a new Society called the Gaelic Union. 

The Seceders included the most active 
and energetic members. Father Nolan, David 
Comyn, O'Neill Russell, and Hyde. The 
new Gaelic Union gave its whole attention 
to Modern Irish, so that it more deserved the 
title of " Society for the Preservation of the 
Irish Language " than did the Society of 
that name. 

The years 1878 to 1893 were not the most 
favourable for starting a new Society. Ire- 
land was torn with the bitterest political 
struggle since the Fenian days. The time of 

26 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE, 



the Land League, the Home Rule Bills, and 
the Parnell split was not a time when men 
could give their attention to the Irish 
Language, which must then have seemed of 
small importance to all but the most far- 
sighted. 

The members of the Gaelic Union, despite 
the unpropitious times, were able to do some 
good work for the Irish language. They 
started a monthly magazine called the Gaelic 
Jou7mal, the first periodical paper printed in 
Irish, which was of much service in the 
work of providing accessible literature for 
those who wished to learn Irish, and an 
opportunity for those who wrote it to pub- 
lish their writings. The Gaelic Journal had 
a hard struggle to keep alive, and could 
never have done so without the help of a 
few subscribers, principal among whom was 
the Rev. Maxwell Close. 

Mr. Close was one of the most disinterested 
of Irishmen, and one who always shunned 
any public recognition of his works. He was a 
rich man, and devoted the whole of his time 
and money to serving the interests of his 
country. As well as being a scholar and 
deeply interested in the literature of his 
country, he was a distinguished astronomer 
and geologist. Without his help the Gaelic 
Journal would have come to an end many 
years before it did, and much Irish literature 
that is now accessible would not have been 

27 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



published. His efforts for the Irish language 
did not terminate with his life, for the Irish 
dictionary which is being slowly published 
by the Royal Irish Academy is paid for from 
a legacy left by him for this purpose. 

When the struggle over the Home Rule 
Bill and Parnell had subsided, there came a 
period of calm over Irish affairs. Then for 
the first time for years Irishmen of different 
political opinions could take breath and 
think of other things than hatred and rivalry. 

By this time the Gaelic Union had become 
moribund, though its organ, the Gaelic 
Journal, was still doing good work. Accor- 
dingly a new society was formed, this time 
under the title of the Gaelic League. 

Before considering the foundation of the 
Gaelic League it would be well to take a 
passing glance at some of the chief figures of 
the older society. 

John Fleming, who had all his life been a 
devoted scholar of Irish, was, in succession 
to David Comyn, editor of the Gaelic Journal, 
He also published the first volume of 
Keating' s History of Ireland, a work which, 
written in the seventeenth century, may be 
said to have formed the groundwork of 
*' Modern " Irish as distinct from " Middle " 
Irish. Fleming's great ambition was to 
write good modern Irish, but it was not for 
many years that the demand for modern 
Irish writings became sufficiently great to 

28 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



reward its writers. Now such authors as 
Hyde, O'Conaire, and Pearse are read by 
hundreds where they would have been read 
by tens had they Uved twenty years earher. 

Fleming edited the Gaelic Journal until 
1891, when ill-health forced him to resign. 
His place was taken by Father Eugene 
O'Growney. Father O'Growney was born 
near Athboy in 1863. It was while a clerical 
student that he first became interested in 
the Gaelic language. He studied the lessons 
in Irish published in a periodical called 
Young Ireland, and by hard work became a 
most accomplished scholar of modern Irish, 
He was for some years Professor of Irish at 
Maynooth, but the work for which he is best 
known is two series of Gaelic primers called 
Simple Lessons in Irish. Though now to 
some extent superseded by the " direct 
method " of teaching, his primers formed the 
basis of teaching in the Gaelic League for 
many years. His health broke down after 
some years of very hard work, and he died 
in California at the early age of forty. 

One of the most picturesque figures of the 
early societies was T. O'Neill Russell. He 
had lived for some time in America, but at 
the close of his life returned to Dublin His 
tall, spare figure, his pointed white beard 
and flashing eyes were seen at every GaeUc 
meeting. He was an enthusiast among 
enthusiasts, and used to evangelise all with 

29 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



whom he came in contact. There is one 
anecdote of his Hfe, perhaps not generally 
known, which brings out the high character 
of the man. A farmer in Co. Sligo found a 
gold ornament, which he sold to O'Neill 
Russell for the small sum of ten shillings. 
O'Neill Russell did not know the value of 
the find, but on coming to Dublin he offered 
it to the Royal Irish Academy, and received 
£15 for it. Russell was very far from rich, 
and his friends were glad of the unexpected 
stroke of luck which had come to him. 
O'Neill Russell, however, did not think of it in 
this light, but sent the whole balance, £14 10s., 
to the man from whom he had bought the 
ornament. A friend remonstrated with him 
for what was considered a quixotic act ; but 
Russell was incensed at being spoken to 
about what he thought a piece of common 
honesty. It is of such simple-minded men 
that apostles are made, but like many 
enthusiasts he was difficult to work with. 

O'Neill Russell was one who deserves a 
corner in the memory of all Gaelic Leaguers. 

In the autumn of 1893 the Gaelic League 
was founded ; its first and until 1916 its 
only president was Hyde. Mr. Eoin Mac- 
Neill, now President, was Hon. Secretary. 
Hyde at last had an opportunity to display 
his talent for organisation. Hitherto the 
Gaelic and Irish Societies had confined them- 
selves to single units, but now Hyde 

30 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



aimed at making a vast organisation, 
spreading all over Ireland, which would at 
once undertake the work of teaching Irish in 
those districts where the language had died 
out, and of preserving the language where 
it still remained a living tongue. 

The Gaelic Union, though it had succeeded 
in getting Irish on to the National Board's 
programme, had not succeeded in getting 
any grip on the country. True, over a 
hundred students had qualified in Irish 
in one year, but the movement was still 
small. 

The Gaelic League was built on broader 
lines. It aimed at having branches in every 
town and village in Ireland linked together 
in a central organisation in Dublin. It had 
the benefit of having men at its head who 
had worked in the Society for the Preserva- 
tion of the Irish Language and in the Gaelic 
Union. These men, who had met with many 
difficulties and discouragements in their work 
for the Irish language, were necessarily those 
who were the keenest and most steadfast in 
the cause, and therefore the most fitted to 
carry on a movement with success. Hyde, now 
in control of the movement, was enabled to 
give full play to his ability. MacNeill was 
second only to him in energy and enthusiasm. 

Very soon after the foundation of the 
League, Father O'Growney, at that time 
Professor of Irish at Maynooth, published 

31 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



his Irish primers, which were of incalculable 
service to the language. 

Hyde by this time had attained high fame 
as an Irish scholar, which, added to his 
genius for attaching others to him, made 
him eminently suited by reputation as well 
as by ability for leader. A later chapter will 
deal with his work in Celtic studies and with 
his literary and poetical work in general ; it 
is sufficient here to say that he was by 1893 
a recognised scholar and author. 

But before considering his work after the 
foundation of the Gaelic League, it is well 
to hear from his own lips his views on the 
Irish revival in general. Fortunately for 
this purpose in the winter of 1892 Hyde 
delivered a lecture to the National Literary 
Society, of which he was president, which 
lecture is especially interesting as expressing 
his views at the very beginning of his great 
campaign for the revival of Irish. 

As has been seen, Ireland had never shown 
such clear signs of losing her national indi- 
viduality as she did in the latter half of the 
nineteenth century, when the great effort to 
de- Anglicise Ireland and to stop the rapid 
decline of Irish life and thought was nearing 
its birth. It is thus that Hyde speaks of it : — 

" When we speak of the necessity for de- Anglicising 
the Irish Nation we mean it, not as a protest against 
imitating what is best in the English people, for that 
would be absurd, but rather to show the folly of neglec- 

32 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



ting what is Irish and hastening to adopt pell mell and 
indiscriminately everything that is English simply 
because it is English." 

This was and is Hyde's guiding principle. 
It is true that in guarding Irish nationaUty 
it is sometimes necessary to guard against 
adopting EngUsh customs and thoughts, 
even when they are good, because the over- 
powering influence of England in Ireland 
is such as to force Ireland to resist or at 
least scrutinise all Englishry if she is to retain 
her individuality at all. It is a healthy sign 
that some of Hyde's followers have gone 
further than their leader in rejecting English 
influences. Hyde's rational and sane view 
will triumph in the end, but Ireland has gone 
so far on the road to de-nationalisation that 
she must now draw back beyond what is 
ultimately to be desired if she is to draw 
back at all. The passing of a few years 
will bring the proper adjustment. A sen- 
tence further on in Hyde's lecture brings 
out the necessity for this. Though not so 
true now as when it was spoken, it is still 
regrettably true. 

" If we take a bird's-eye view of our island to-day 
and compare it with what it used to be, we must be 
struck by the extraordinary fact that that nation which 
was once, as everyone admits, one of the most classically 
learned and cultured nations in Europe is now one of 
the least so ; how one of the most reading and literary 
peoples has become one of the least studious and most 
unliterary, and how the artistic products of one of the 
quickest, most sensitive, and most artistic races on earth 

33 



THE FOUNDATION OF 



are now only distinguished for their hideousness. I 
shall endeavour to show that this failure of the Irish 
people in recent times has been largely brought about 
by the race diverging during this century from the right 
path and ceasing to become Irish without becoming 
Enghsh." 

Hyde then proceeded to point out what 
Ireland had lost by giving up her Irish 
characteristics, names, customs, games, and 
language, and how this had brought her 
down in character and had almost made her 
cease to be a nation. " I wish to show you," 
he said, " that in Anglicising ourselves whole- 
sale we have thrown away with a light 
heart the best claim which we have upon the 
world's recognition of us as a separate 
nation." He shewed, what is common- 
place knowledge to Irishmen, that they do 
not make good Englishmen. They are pre- 
pared to adopt some of the habits of English- 
men without becoming English. " They 
always stop halfway on the road." 

" But you ask," he continues, " why should we want 
to make Ireland more Celtic than it is — why should we 
de-Anghcise it at all ? 

" I answer, because the Irish race is at present in a most 
anomalous position, imitating England and yet hating 
it. How can it produce anything good in literature, art 
or institutions as long as it is actuated by motives so 
contradictory ! Besides, it is our own Gaehc past 
which, though the Irish race does not recognise it, is 
really at the bottom of the Irish heart and prevents us 
becoming citizens of the Empire." 

Hyde then referred to the way in which 

34 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



Ireland absorbed layer upon layer of in- 
vaders, Danes, Normans, Saxons, and yet 
preserved her national characteristics and 
life and gave her language almost unaltered 
to thousands upon thousands of strangers. 
The Irish people resisted all these attacks 
upon their nationality. 

" But, alas, quantum mutatus ah illo ! What the 
battle-axe of the Dane, the sword of the Norman, the 
wile of the Saxon were unable to perform we have 
accomplished ourselves. We have at last broken the 
continuity of Irish life ; and just at the moment when 
the Celtic race is presumably about to largely recover 
possession of its own country it finds itself deprived and 
stript of its Celtic characteristics, cut off from the past 
yet scarcely in touch with the present. It has lost since 
the beginning of this century almost all that connected 
it with the era of Cuchulain and of Ossian, that connec- 
ted it with the Christianisers of Europe. . . . 

" It has lost all that they had in language, tra- 
ditions, music, genius and ideas. Just when we should 
be starting to build up anew the Irish race and Gaelic 
nation — ^as within our own recollections Greece has been 
built up anew — we find ourselves despoiled of the bricks 
ornationality. The old bricks that lasted eighteen hun- 
dred years destroyed ; we must now set to make new 
ones if we can on other ground and of other clay. 
Imagine for a moment the restoration of a German - 
speaking Greece ! " 

These long quotations from Hyde's lecture 
in 1892 are of intense interest. They show 
the ideas which filled his mind just when the 
Gaelic League was about to start its work 
of reviving Irish language and traditions. 

To-day his views are unaltered. Much has 
35 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



been done towards realising his ideals, far 
more remains to be done ; but Hyde has 
been given the pleasure of seeing, in a 
measure at least, his work bearing fruit. If 
much remains undone, if many have made 
mistakes in the work that was done, yet 
there has been a great awakening in Ireland 
to Irish ideas. The Irish language, if not 
generally spoken, is generally respected. 
The will to be Irish is kept alive in the 
country. To Hyde must be ascribed the 
lion's share in this work. If any man can 
claim to have built up a national ideal it is 
he. 



36 



CHAPTER III 
THE GAELIC LEAGUE. 

In the early nineties of the last century 
political feeling reached a high pitch of 
intensity. Irishmen of different political 
views found it difficult to work together for 
any object. " Felons and gaolbirds " were 
words flung freely at the Home Rule Party, 
which had just come through the fiercest 
struggle of the " Plan of Campaign " ; 
" traitors and parasites " were the replies of 
the Nationalists. Internal strife rent the 
Nationalist party. Parnellites and Healyites 
were ready to kill one another. 

A debating club called the " Contemporary 
Club " had been started in Dublin, largely 
by graduates of Trinity College, with the 
object of exchanging views on Irish prob- 
lems. The club was formed of equal numbers 
of Unionists and Nationalists, and members 
were only admitted in pairs, but this was 
soon found to be a failure. Before long the 
members of one political body ceased to 
attend. After some years a solitary Unionist 
remained to shew what the club had once 
been. 

The men who founded the Gaelic League 
saw the evils wrought by political hatred 
poisoning every form of national effort* 
They saw every attempt to improve con- 
ditions of life in Ireland made into a political 

37 D 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



h.^ move of one party or the other. They, 
therefore, determined that they would do 
their best to keep the movement for the 
revival of the Irish language free from all 
political colour. 

The Gaelic League was started as a body, 
to preserve and revive the Irish language 
literature, music, dancing, and games, to 
encourage Irish art and industries, and was 
declared to be non-political and non-sectarian. 
The effort to start the Gaelic League as a 
non-political and non-sectarian body (a 
phrase which has been run to death in 
Ireland) was singularly successful. Though 
no doubt the vast majority of those who 
wished to revive the Irish language were and 
are Nationalists of one shade or another, a 
considerable number of Unionists joined the 
League, either from linguistic motives, or 
because they saw in the Gaelic League a 
means of meeting their Nationalist com- 
patriots on a neutral ground. The speeches 
and writings of Hyde and the other leaders 
of the movement were all moderate in tone 
and carefully explained that the Gaelic 
League was not under the control of any 
political organisation. They welcomed into 
the Gaelic League all who had any interest 
in a distinctively Irish culture, and their 
appeal met with a good response. Men's 
minds, numbed by the political strife of the 
previous decade, revived to an interest in the 

38 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



intellectual as apart from the political life 
of their country. It was in this spirit that 
quite a large number of Unionists sympa- 
thised with the objects of the League. That 
body of Unionist opinion which, while up- 
holding the principle of Union with England 
for commercial reasons, still holds that 
Ireland is a nation, was decidedly sympa- 
thetic to the Gaelic movement. Such 
Unionists were especially welcomed by the 
Gaelic League, which aimed at being an all 
Ireland movement, wholly Irish, but rejecting 
nothing that is Irish. 

To the great distress of those Unionists 
who had no sympathy with the Gaelic 
League it was soon found that no sooner did 
a Unionist come into close contact with the 
movement than his unionism began to 
weaken. This was the result of gaining a 
more intimate knowledge of the Irish people 
and from reading Irish history. Lecky's 
History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 
a book which is said to have made a Home 
Ruler of nearly everyone who read it except 
its author, formed a groundwork on which 
a knowledge of Irish history was based. The 
Gaelic League in encouraging the study of 
Irish history brought many to read that 
book, the standard work on the later period 
of the history of Ireland. The result was 
that a number of Unionists became Home 
Kulers. This, of course, caused a great 

39 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



fluttering in the Unionist dove cotes, es- 
pecially in the North of Ireland. The 
Gaelic League was looked upon as one of the 
most insidious weapons of the Nationalists. 
Any attempt to introduce the teaching of 
Irish was regarded as "the thin end of the 
wedge." It was further looked on as a weapon 
for the destruction of Protestantism. One 
gentleman who saw in the Gaelic League 
the direct instrument of Satan in the over- 
throw of religion wrote to the Derry 
Sentinel :— 

" It will be hardly necessary to warn Protestant 
Loyalists against the soft soaping efforts of individuals 
.... championing the society known as the Gaelic 
League .... The short and the long of the whole 
matter is that the GaeUc League and its kindred societies 
are all covered with the same coat of Home Rule tar 
and are at bottom httle better than Fenian ; any unwary 
Protestant getting mixed up with them being played as 
a decoy duck for all he is worth.** 

Another, writing in the same paper, said 
that the Gaelic League was a society for 
" the wholesale desecration of the Lord's 
Day," and ended, " let all good men and 
true repeat the words of the prayer, ' Good 
Lord deliver us from all these abomina- 
tions.' " 

No doubt these worthy gentlemen were 
right in their fears. The learning of Irish 
undoubtedly had the effect of making 
Unionists waver in their convictions ; while 
the majority of Gaelic Leaguers, being busy 

40 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



all the week, and belonging to a Church 
which does not teach the Jewish doctrine of 
the Sabbath, made Sunday the usual day for 
Gaelic meetings and games. (Irish Pro- 
testants are usually extremely Low Church 
in their religious views.) 

It was natural that the political party 
which bases its doctrines on the English 
connection should be hostile to a movement 
which aimed at preserving Irish charac- 
teristics. Undoubtedly the strongest ele- 
ments in the Unionist party wish to make 
Ireland into a glorified English county, and 
take their views of Ufe altogether from 
England. There are, of course, large num- 
bers of Unionists who are thoroughly Irish 
in feeling, but these are not of the real 
strength of the Unionist party. 

Thus, though the Leaguers kept politics 
out of the League to a wonderful extent, 
they were from the beginning opposed by 
the more violent members of one political 
party. 

The Nationalist politicians, on the other 
hand, did not trust a movement professedly^ 
non-political. " Non-political " movements 
in Ireland have generally meant movements 
designed to wean the people from politics 
into an apathetic acquiescence in the state 
of things as they are. " Give up thinking 
about Home Rule and give your attention to 
this or that " has been the watchword of 

41 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



many a man who wanted to break up the 
Nationahst party in Ireland. But the Irish 
people have always been intensely interested 
in politics where they concerned self-govern- 
ment or the land problem, and completely 
indifferent to all other political questions. 
Thus " Give up politics " meant and means 
" Give up Home Rule." It is always the 
party which is satisfied with the status quo 
which dislikes politics. 

The official Nationalists dreaded a move- 
ment which had this dangerous watchword, 
and were inclined to be hostile to the Gaelic 
League ; but it was soon found that the 
League did not attempt to interfere with any 
man's politics or to stop men, other than 
officials of the Gaelic League acting on the 
League's business, from being as political as 
they Uked on either side. 

A rampant Orangeman was as welcome to 
the League as a Fenian, and no one tried to 
convert either. Of course the number of 
Orangemen who were members was very 
small ; in fact only one prominent Orange- 
man joined. 

The League attracted to its ranks many 
persons who were or who afterwards became 
prominent in the political and industrial life 
of the country though not associated with 
any bigoted party views. Lord Castletown 
and the O' Conor Don both took an active 
part in Gaelic League propaganda, and Capt. 

42 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



the Hon. Otway Cuffe did as much as one 
man can do to further it in Kilkenny, where, 
helped by his sister-in-law, Ellen Lady 
Desert, he founded a number of industries 
and by means of lectures and plays awakened 
a new interest in Ireland in that city. His 
early death was a great loss to Ireland and 
to the Gaelic movement, but Lady Desert 
carries on his work. 

The Nationalist party found that the Irish 
revival had behind it the sympathy of 
Ireland, and that the Gaelic League was 
spreading rapidly over the country. Many 
members of the party were Gaelic Leaguers, 
and soon the distrust of the official Nation- 
alists for the League was conquered. Several 
members of the party took an active interest 
in the movement, and Mr. O'Donnell made 
a speech in Irish in Parliament, to the 
astonishment and disgust of the English 
members, who took prompt measures to 
prevent a repetition of the outrage. The 
leaders of the party, though not very en- 
thusiastic supporters ofthe Gaelic movement, 
gave it some aid, and both Mr. Redmond 
and Mr. Dillon occasionally appeared on 
Gaelic League platforms. Both in the House 
of Commons and outside they worked to 
safeguard the interests of the language in 
Irish education, and with the exception of 
a difference of opinion on Mr. Dillon's part 
on the question of compulsory Irish in the 

43 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



National University they have consistently 
continued to give it their support. Mr. 
Redmond, at a St. Patrick's Day dinner 
in London in 1904, publicly asked Hyde to 
take a seat in Parliament, an offer which 
was appreciated but declined. 

At the close of the nineteenth century a 
new element arose in Irish politics, the Sinn 
Fein movement. As the Gaelic League 
became to some extent saturated with Sinn 
Fein ideas, and gradually the Central Com- 
mittee of the League became largely com- 
posed of Sinn Feiners, it is well to give 
a few words about the movement. (In 
parenthesis it may be said that Sinn Feiners 
is a mongrel word ; Sinn Fein being two Irish 
words meaning " we, ourselves," to add the 
termination " ers " on to this is disgusting 
to the ear ; but it has now become so common 
that the reader must forgive its use.) 

The Sinn Fein movement is very old. 
Dean Swift defined it in the clearest and 
simplest terms when he wrote " burn every- 
thing English except her coals." It simply 
means use everything Irish, Irish clothes, 
Irish food, Irish manufactures generally, rely 
on yourselves, do everything for yourselves, 
resist and ignore all foreign influence. This 
policy was first put in concrete form before 
the Irish people at the end of the nineteenth 
century, though it had often been advocated 
in a vague way from Swift's day downwards. 

44 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



Thomas Davis in his essays said many things 
that might be called Sinn Fein. The 

" Hungarian policy " was another name for 
the movement, based on an alleged but mis- 
leading similarity between the condition of 
Ireland and that of Hungary. Besides these 
important doctrines about using Irish goods, 
there was also a bold political policy, namely, 
that the Irish members should boycott the 
English Parliament, have an assembly of 
their own in Dublin, and make the Govern- 
ment of Ireland impossible without their 
co-operation.* 

The industrial semi-protective policy was 
widely taken up. The more intelligent among 
Irishmen saw that it would be a good thing 
from many points of view to encourage Irish 
industries in every way in their power, and 
the Sinn Fein policy influenced and influences 
all political parties in Ireland ; the Unionist 
party has some strong industrial Sinn 
Feiners in its ranks. 

Mr. Edward Martyn was the first president 
of Sinn Fein as a party, and spent much time 
preaching its doctrines. Mr. Arthur Griffiths, 

♦The political policy never took a strong hold in Ireland, but 
while I am writing this the Sinn Fein policy seems gaining 
ground in the country, but it is not possible, as yet, to say that 
the policy of abstention from Parliament has been generally 
adopted. It is difficult to say to which of three reasons the 
recent successes of Sinn Fein candidates is due, namely, to 
dislike of the present Nationalist party, to a desire to show 
sympathy with the rising of 1916, or to a genuine adoption of 
Sinn Fein views. 

45 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



an able journalist, was editor of a paper 
called Sinn Fein, which was the organ of the 
party. Mr. Griffiths, it may be said, con- 
tinued to edit Sinn Fein both as a daily and 
as a weekly paper until its suppression under 
the Defence of the Realm Act during the 
present war. He then edited the paper 
under different names until the outbreak of 
the Rising of Easter Week (1916). 

In its beginnings Sinn Fein was a purely 
intellectual movement. It worked through 
preaching its ideas on platforms and in the 
press. As is natural, a movement advoca- 
ting that Ireland should completely ignore 
the connection with England, should boy- 
cott the English Parliament, and should 
behave as though she were an independent 
country, was much drawn towards the Gaelic 
League. It must be emphasised, in view of 
recent events and the modern inaccurate use 
of the words Sinn Fein, that the Sinn Fein 
movement did not contemplate physical 
violence. A gigantic boycott was its pro- 
gramme. In its early days Sinn Fein was 
not a party but simply a policy preached to 
those who wished for Irish self-government ; it 
was not antagonistic to the Nationalist party. 

If it were natural for Sinn Feiners to be 
drawn towards the Gaelic League from the 
standpoint of resisting English influence in 
Ireland, it was equally natural for Gaelic 
Leaguers to be attracted by Sinn Fein. The 

46 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



Gaelic League was professedly for the 
development of the Irish language, thought, 
literature and customs, and many Gaelic 
Leaguers readily embraced those Sinn Fein 
doctrines which were not already included in 
their programme. 

Under the presidency of Mr. Martyn the 
Sinn Feiners devoted their attention largely 
to non-political matters such as the en- 
couragement of Irish industries. They, of 
course, preached the doctrine of boycott of 
England politically as well as industrially, 
and tried to keep this idea constantly before 
the people. As a result there was a great 
spread of Sinn Fein views. It became a 
common boast of Irishmen that they did not 
wear foreign made cloth or use foreign made 
goods when it was possible to get those of 
Irish make. This doctrine is still held by 
Nationalists and by many Unionists also. 

By degrees Sinn Fein ceased to be a purely 
intellectual and economic movement and 
became a party hostile to the Nationalist 
party. As is inevitable, some took up the 
ideas more readily and vigorously than others 
and wanted to force the pace ; a fair number 
of converts were made, and the Sinn Feiners 
determined to test their strength in the country 
in an open stand against the Nationalist 
party at the polls. Mr. Martyn was bitterly 
opposed to this. He contended that the 
Sinn Fein movement should continue to be 

47 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



a preaching movement, and should leave it 
to the country itself to decide whether it 
wished to adopt the policy or not. He 
was overruled by the majority of Sinn 
Feiners and resigned his presidency. 

A Sinn Fein candidate fought the 
Nationalist candidate in North Leitrim. The 
Sinn Feiner was heavily beaten, and since 
then Sinn Fein never attempted to fight an 
election until this year, 1917. 

This dissertation on Sinn Fein leads up 
to the influence of that political policy on 
the Gaelic League. Many Sinn Feiners had 
joined the League ; many Gaelic Leaguers 
had become Sinn Feiners ; there was, apart 
from politics, a general sympathy in policy 
between the two organisations. On the 
other hand, there were (and are) many 
Gaelic Leaguers who thought that the policy 
of Sinn Fein was unwise ; there were (and 
are) Sinn Feiners who thought the language 
movement could be carried on better were 
it kept strictly away from political parties. 

The Gaelic League had converted Ireland 
to support its views. At the time of the Com- 
mission on Intermediate Education in Ire- 
land the whole country was roused to protest 
against the virulent attacks of Professor 
Mahaffy and Dr. Atkinson on the Irish 
language. In Parliament and out of it the 
Nationalists rallied to the support of the 
language. Then when the University ques- 

48 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



tion came to be settled the question of the 
position of Irish came forward. Compulsory 
Irish or voluntary Irish was the ques- 
tion of the day. The matter was hotly taken 
up by the County Councils, elected bodies. 
County Councils refused to provide money 
for scholarships in the New University unless 
Irish were made a compulsory subject. They 
fought tooth and nail on the side of the 
Gaelic League. Archbishop Walsh was in 
favour of compulsory Irish. The Gaelic 
League won. 

All through these fights the League had 
kept itself free from the taint of party 
politics. It had relied on the support of all 
sections of Irishmen, and it had got that 
support. To run down the Irish language or 
the Gaelic League was a thing that no Irish 
politician dared do in a Nationalist con- 
stituency of any shade. 

Meanwhile, after its defeat at the polls in 
North Leitrim, the Sinn Fein movement had 
become greatly narrowed. As was natural 
the official Nationalists attempted to destroy 
the movement. Those of them who had at 
one time supported it felt that they had 
nursed a viper. Ink flowed freely. A party 
fight of this nature always breeds intense 
bitterness. When two parties, both seeking 
the same ends, fight as to means, they nearly 
always become worse enemies than either is 
with their common enemy. The Sinn Fein 

49 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



party was largely composed of men who were 
quicker at taking up new ideas than their 
fellows. They became drawn more closely 
towards each other in the fight with the 
Nationalist party, and though diminished 
in numbers, they became more firmly 
attached to one another than ever they had 
formerly been. 

A small party, such as was the Sinn Fein 
party, particularly when largely composed 
of quick-witted men, tends to become very 
narrow in its views. The Sinn Feiners were 
probably on an average more intelligent than 
the average of the country, and when drawn 
into a close party tended to despise those 
who would not follow them. They soon 
began to look upon themselves as the only 
people with the welfare of Ireland at heart ; 
it was not a long step from this to regard 
themselves as the only real Irishmen. 

Now it must be remembered that these 
men were many of them Gaelic Leaguers. 
The mere fact that they took an actively 
opposite side from the official Nationalists 
in politics showed a certain mental energy, 
thus it was that some of the most active 
Oaelic Leaguers were Sinn Feiners. The 
next step was for Sinn Fein to attempt to 
capture the Gaelic League and, to use an 
expression of one of its own members, to 
make the Gaelic League declare itself on the 
side of Ireland. Mr. Griffiths openly ex- 

50 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



pressed the view that the GaeUc League 
should ally itself with the Sinn Fein party. 

Hyde had started the Gaelic League upon 
a non-political basis, profoundly convinced 
that the best hope of reviving the language 
lay in having a body devoted to that object 
and to that object only. A feeble attempt, 
not countenanced by the leaders, on the part 
of the official Nationalists to get control 
of the League had been stopped. Hyde, and 
those who thought with him, including Eoin 
MacNeill, P. H. Pearse, and P. O'Daly, Secre- 
tary of the League, were successful in keeping 
the League apart from politics. Though 
MacNeill seldom attended meetings of the 
Coisde Gnotha after the first few years, as 
he was occupied in publishing Irish manu- 
scripts, he used his influence on the non- 
political side. Non-political in name, though 
principally formed of Irish Home Rulers of 
one shade or another, the Gaelic League was 
non-political also in fact. 

Before proceeding with the attempt of the 
Sinn Feiners to draw the League into politics 
on their own side it is perhaps as well that 
the present writer should state briefly his 
own views on the matter in order that the 
reader may make due allowance for the 
writer's prejudices, that is, of course, if the 
writer have any prejudices. He thinks he 
has a clear view of the facts of the case, and 
that, as he has to write largely about " might 

51 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



have beens," his deductions, where he makes 
any, are right. This, however, may also be 
prejudice. 

It seems clear to the writer that there 
were only two possible courses open to 
the founders of the League. One, to have 
a rigidly non-political society as they had. 
The other, to have thrown themselves in with 
the predominant national party ; to have 
worked with that party and assisted it in 
every possible way ; to have formed them- 
selves on that party's lines, and to have 
tried in their turn to influence it in the 
direction of making it take up the Irish 
Language and other objects of the League 
as one of the main points in its propaganda. 
There is much to be said for the latter course. 
Ireland has always had an overwhelming 
majority of Home Rulers. The Home 
Rulers include Sinn Feiners. Since Parnell's 
day the vast majority of those Home Rulers 
have supported one party, the Irish Nation- 
alist party. This party had a complete 
organisation all over the country, and so strong 
was it that except in Cork and parts of 
Ulster attempts to contest its supremacy 
have seldom succeeded. The Gaelic League 
by what it has done has clearly proved that 
it is a movement which appeals to Irishmen. 
To have united these two movements might 
have added immensely to the strength of 
each, and they might have aided each other 

62 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



materially in the attainment of their objects. 
All national effort would have moved in the 
same channels, and much wasted energy 
would have been saved. 

On the other hand it must be said that 
the movement for the revival of Irish has so 
universal an appeal to Irishmen that it 
would be shameful to confine it to one 
political party, however strong. The 
Unionist has as much right to support the 
Irish language as the Nationalist, so has the 
Sinn Feiner. The political fight is one which 
must involve recriminations and hatreds. 
The GaeUc movement need be hostile to no 
one. Educate and preach is all it says. 
Create the desire to preserve the language 
and the language will be preserved, no matter 
how. It does not require the assistance of 
any political party. 

In its early days, in fact until this year^ 
the Sinn Fein party only represented a small 
minority of the Irish people. The Gaelic 
League, had it allied itself with Sinn 
Fein, would have encountered the open 
hostility of three-fourths of the country, 
so that even though Sinn Fein represented 
a minority with high ideals it is the opinion 
of the present writer that an alliance 
between Sinn Fein and the Gaelic League 
would have been disastrous to the latter, 
though there might have been something 
to be said for uniting the Gaelic League 

63 B 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



with the political party of the majority. 
Whatever might have been wise fifteen 
years ago, the whole situation has been 
changing so rapidly within the last year 
that it is impossible even to guess at what 
will happen in the end. It is, however, 
time to return to the main thread of the 
narrative. 

As has been said, the Sinn Feiners in the 
League were nearly always among the 
more active members of the organisation, 
and, as the more lethargic members got 
pushed quietly out, the committees of the 
League became filled by enthusiastic ex- 
tremists with a large amount of ability but 
little balance or appreciation of the realities 
of a situation. If the Gaelic League could 
be blended with the political associations of 
Ireland, most of which are controlled by men 
who have too great an appreciation of the 
solid facts of the moment and too little 
enthusiasm for the idealistic side of politics, 
a splendid whole might be created. As things 
are, the Gaelic League and the political 
societies each in their own way represent the 
different aspects of Irish life. 

To sum up the position of the Gaelic 
League with regard to the political situation. 
At the beginning of its career the Gaelic 
League occupied a unique position in Ireland, 
a position which had not been attained by 
any organisation since the disruption of the 

54 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



Volunteers of 1780. It was supported by 
the chief poHtical party in Ireland and at 
the same time embraced a large number of 
the political minority. Though attacked by 
extreme Unionists, the average member of 
that party, even if he did not sympathise 
with the objects of the League, regarded it 
with benevolent indifference. 

Having thus described the atmosphere in 
which it was founded, it is time to turn to 
the organisation of the Gaelic League itself. 
The organisation of the League consisted 
and consists of a number of branches in 
various parts of the country ; each branch 
as a condition of affiliation to the League 
must have a certain number of members 
attending Irish classes. Besides these classes 
the branches organise Irish plays, Irish 
dances and lectures on subjects of Irish 
interest. Each branch elects a representative 
to a central assembly called the Ard Fheis, 
or High Assembly, which meets once a year 
and decides on subjects of general interest 
to the League. The Ard Fheis also elects a 
president and Coiste Gnotha, or Executive 
Committee, to manage the affairs of the 
League. Hyde was unanimously elected 
president each year from the foundation of 
the League in 1893 until his resignation in 
1915. In some cases there are district 
committees called Coiste Ceanntair, which in 

55 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



large towns such as Dublin have some con- 
trol in local affairs. 

By means of the Ard Feis every branch 
is kept in touch with the whole organisation 
and is able to compare its work with the work 
of other districts. At the time of holding 
the Ard Feis it is usual to hold competitions 
and games ; the Oireachtas, as the festival 
is called, usually lasts for several days and 
thus gives Gaelic Leaguers from the extreme 
ends of Ireland an opportunity of meeting 
one another. On the whole the organisation 
has worked well, though there has been a 
section which is in favour of more local 
control and the establishment of County 
Committees. County committees exist in 
some counties, and in Ulster there is a body 
called the Dail Uladh, which, though not 
officially connected with the League, exer- 
cises an efBcient control over the teaching 
of Irish in that province. 

A description of a typical branch of the 
Gaelic League is much as follows :— There are 
from a himdred to three hundred members of 
all ages, from seven to seventy, and from all 
strata in society. The branch, if rich, has a 
house or several rooms of its own where its 
meetings and classes are held ; if poor, it 
meets in the local schoolhouse or hall. 

The most important matter is the teaching 
of the Irish language. This is divided into 
three or four classes, each meeting once or 

66 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



twice a week. The classes may have from 
ten to a hundred pupils, and here the 
extremes of age and youth often meet. It 
is not at all rare to see old men and women 
working beside boys and girls. The spirit of 
the class is very democratic, and the teacher, 
having no authority over his or her pupils, 
is obliged to rule by tact alone. He generally 
keeps up a running fire of chaff in Gaelic 
with his class, who answer according to their 
fluency. In the beginning of the League the 
text books of Father O'Growney were uni- 
versally used, but of late years the so-called 
" direct method " is more common. It is 
often amusing, when it is not pathetic, to 
see greyhaired men and women stumbling 
through the first rudiments of the language 
while children solemnly correct their mis- 
takes. 

The very young, though often learning 
amongst their elders, generally have classes 
to themselves, as most of the grown-ups who 
are learning Irish are busy during the day 
and can only attend classes at night. The 
teachers are often native speakers of Irish. 
As the language has died out from among 
the richer classes of the community, and is 
only generally spoken in the wilder parts of 
the land, the teachers bring into the class an 
element of the wild sea or mountain breezes 
in which they have been reared. For the 
same reason agriculture tends to predominate 

57 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



in the subjects discussed in the lessons ► 
Often a city bred child can say in Irish that 
the cow has broken into the wheat, or that 
the horse is going to the well, long before he 
can talk of any of the things which affect his 
own life. This last fault is disappearing as 
the number of teachers increases and the 
text-books are brought up to date. 

Besides the classes there are ceilidhthe. A 
ceilidh is a sort of evening entertainment, 
including dancing, singing and recitations. 
At ceilidhthe only native Irish dances are per- 
mitted. These dances are all either step or 
figure dancing. As a result the number of 
single performances at a ceilidh is large as 
compared with the number of dances. Some- 
times there is tea at a ceilidh, sometimes 
not, but strong drink is very much dis- 
couraged. The step dancing is often very 
good, but the figure dances are the more 
amusing. These dances with their pic- 
turesque names, such as " The Waves of 
Tory," " The Bridge of Athlone," or " The 
Walls of Limerick," are easy to learn after 
a fashion, but they are sometimes com- 
plicated, and then there is both confusion 
and amusement when there are several be- 
ginners dancing. 

The ceilidhthe form one of the best features 
of the Gaelic League. They bring people 
together as no other form of amusement in 
Ireland does. They are free from ostenta- 

68 



THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



tion or vulgarity, and are one of the few 
means of bringing variety and liveliness into 
the lives of the great mass of the people. 

Besides the ceilidhthe, there are often open- 
air excursions, or " turas," when all mem- 
bers of the branch are invited to go to some 
place of interest or beauty. The turas some- 
times ends with a ceilidh in the open air. 

Thus a branch of the Gaelic League forms 
itself into a social as well as an intellectual 
centre. It would be hard to exaggerate the 
importance of the part played by the League 
in the smaller country towns, where before 
the advent of the cinematograph any means 
of amusement was practically unknown, and 
where since the cinematograph has spread 
over the country the source of entertain- 
ment is only varied as between the broad 
comedy of Charlie Chaplin and the maudlin 
sentiment of the " strong love interest." 

In the past twenty years the Gaelic 
League has been a most potent factor in 
the life of Ireland. It has broadened the 
outlook of the country and has raised the 
standard of intellect wherever it has taken 
root. Such a change is difficult to estimate. 
It is barely recognised ; so much does its 
influence pervade the minds of the people 
that they are generally unaware that they 
have altered. It is only by looking back 
over a long period that the effect is seen, and 
it is still too soon to appreciate it to the fulL 

69 



CHAPTER IV 

EDUCATION 

The Gaelic League had shewn Irishmen a 
new channel through which their love of 
Ireland could express itself, and not only 
those who were learning Irish, but many 
who avoided that labour, wished it to be 
made part of the education of the youth of 
the country. In the primary or " National 
schools " the local manager has a large con- 
trol, and where the managers favour Irish, 
Irish is taught ; where they don't, it is not. 
The manager is usually the Parish Priest or 
clergyman. By degrees the National Board 
was induced to provide money for the 
teaching of Irish, but the matter is still in 
the control of the manager. The Gaelic League 
by its general propaganda has induced many 
managers to have Irish taught in their 
schools, but, sad to say, in the majority of 
national schools the language is absolutely 
neglected. 

The system of secondary education in 
Ireland known as " Intermediate " educa- 
tion had long been unsatisfactory, and 
in response to popular agitation the Govern- 
ment decided to make some reform. Accord- 

60 



EDUCATION 



ingly in the year 1900 a commission was 
appointed to enquire into the question and 
to suggest alterations. 

It would take another book as large as 
this one to write a tithe of what could be 
written about commissions, Royal and Vice- 
Regal ; but it may be said that as a rule they 
do little active harm. Their reports may 
not be of great value, but they often contain 
much interesting evidence. If they do little 
else, they provide a means by which many 
can air their opinions at small expense. 

Hyde and his colleagues determined that 
the question of the position of Irish in Irish 
education should be discussed fully before 
the Commission. In this they had the 
support of a large body of opinion 
strengthened by the Irish Parliamentary 
Party. Those who feared the Irish Language 
as only another manifestation of Irish 
Nationalism were not less anxious to state 
their views. The latter included many well 
known persons in Ireland. Dr. Mahaffy, 
Dr. Atkinson, Mr. Bernard, and Mr. Edward 
Gwynn, with varying intensity, urged upon 
the Commission the evil it would do in 
recommending that Irish should be given an 
important position in the Intermediate 
examinations. 

Before considering what Hyde said it is 
as well to give a brief account of the 
evidence put forward against Irish. Dr. 

61 



EDUCATION 



Mahaffy, who has never lacked the courage 
of stating his opinions boldly, began by 
saying that though he thought Irish in- 
teresting from a philological point of view, 
he regarded the living language as of no 
educational value, and then, quoting Mr. 
Edward Gwynn, stated that the twenty 
years during which Irish had been an inter- 
mediate subject had diminished the know- 
ledge of the language, a point none would 
contest, though the causes were far other 
than was implied. Dr. Mahaffy then made 
the statement that an expert, whose name 
he would not give, but who was in all pro- 
bability Dr. Atkinson, said that it was 
impossible to find a text in Irish which was 
not either religious, silly or indecent, a 
remark which brought forth indignant replies 
from Irish scholars in all the countries of 
Europe. 

It is sad to think that Dr. Mahaffy has so 
low an opinion of the moral character of the 
ancient Irish as that which he often ex- 
presses. Not only does he say the Irish texts 
are indecent, but his view of the behaviour 
of the Irish sixteenth century chiefs is also 
depressing. The story of O'Cahan's " naked 
squaws " is often quoted by him from the 
account of a Bohemian traveller. It may be 
of interest in this connection to quote a few 
words from Gibbon where he deals with the 
visit of the Byzantine Chalcondyles to 

62 



EDUCATION 



England in 1402, who said " But the most 
singular circumstance of their manners is 
their disregard of conjugal honour and 
female chastity. ..." Gibbon's comment 
is — " Informed as we are of the customs of 
old England, and assured of the virtues of 
our mothers, we may smile at the credulity 
or resent the injustice of the Greek, who 
must have confounded a modest salute mth 
a criminal embrace. But his credulity and 
injustice may teach us an important lesson : 
to distrust the accounts of foreign and 
remote nations, and to suspend our belief 
of every tale that deviates from the laws of 
nature and the character of man." 

To complete this subject, a few words may 
be quoted from Prof. Zimmer, one of the 
greatest of Celtic scholars. " If Professor 
Mahaffy has really given it as his judgment 
that Irish literature, in its bulk, possesses 
only texts which are ' either religious or 
silly or indecent,' then such a judgment is 
for everyone who is practically familiar with 
Irish literature beneath any criticism." 

Dr. Mahaffy's evidence did not rest there, 
for he was subjected to a severe cross- 
examination by the O'Connor Don and 
Archbishop Walsh on points of detail, im- 
portant points, such as the number of marks 
to be given to " Celtic " (the word inserted 
by Act of Parliament), but it would be 
tedious to enter into details ; the broad 

63 



EDUCATION 



principle was whether or not Irish was to 
have an important place in Irish education. 

Dr. Mahaffy's views are broadly indicated 
above as they appeared in 1900. It would 
seem that he has modified them somewhat 
during the last sixteen years, but unfor- 
tunately they may still be taken as typical 
of much uninformed opinion in Ireland. 

Dr. Atkinson, himself a Celtic scholar, 
wound up the attack on Irish. He renewed 
the accusation of indecency, lack of grammar 
and of importance. He stated that the 
different " patois " were each as a foreign 
language outside their own particular dis- 
tricts. Dr. Atkinson seems to have carried 
his objection to Irish to the point of absolute 
detestation ; he would hardly allow a single 
merit to the language until pressed by the 
evidence of English and continental scholars, 
he was compelled to admit that here and 
there some interest was to be found therein. 
Referring to Hyde's researches in Folklore, 
he said, " Well, he published some stories — 
of course, there was nothing ethically wrong 
about them, but so low ! " and of his lan- 
guage, *' No, it was not good enough to be 
<3alled a patois. I should call it an imbroglio, 
melange, an omnium gatherum." It would 
seem that it took three foreign languages to 
supply words sufficiently forcible to satisfy 
Dr. Atkinson's loathing of the Irish language 
in general and Hyde's Gaelic in particular ! 

64 



EDUCATION 



Cross-examined by Judge Madden, he was 
asked — " What was meant by Dr. Douglas 
Hyde and the other authorities to whom he 
referred when they spoke of modern Irish ? " 
" Well, God knows," was his only reply. 
When pressed on the point of the indecency 
of Irish as compared to other folk-lore he 
took refuge in the remark, " All folk-lore 
is at bottom abominable." 

It would be pleasant to spend a few pages 
considering the remark that " all folk-lore 
is at bottom abominable," but Atkinson 
has passed from human controversies, 
and it is better to refrain from facile 
criticism. 

Archbishop Bernard and Mr. Provost 
Mahaffy are still with us and have to a large 
extent altered their hasty judgments, which 
seem to have been arrived at from such a 
train of reasoning as the following : — 

The Irish are a beastly people. 

We represent a civilising influence in 
Ireland. 

If the Irish had ever been civilised, the 
English are largely responsible for their 
present beastliness, and, therefore, we are 
not a wholly civilising influence. 

This is impossible. 

Therefore the Irish always were a beastly 
people. 

Having arrived at this conclusion, it was 
useful to have Atkinson to back it up. 

65 



EDUCATION 



Mr. Gwynn, though at the time of the Inter- 
mediate Commission opposed to the general 
teaching of Irish, has since given it practical 
support. He was largely instrumental in 
having Irish placed on the pass course of 
Trinity College, and as president of the 
Dublin University Gaelic Society gave en- 
couragement and support to the under- 
graduates in the study of Irish and kindred 
subjects. 

Hyde replied to Atkinson, and as his reply 
was contemporary with the attack, and is 
also a valuable illustration of his ability in 
controversy, it is not amiss to indicate its 
tenor here. As it would take at least sixty 
pages of this book to reproduce the whole, 
only a very small portion can be given, 
but if the reader be not already familiar 
with it he should study the report of the 
Commission, which he will find a mine of 
interesting information. Hyde's reply to 
Atkinson was reprinted by the Gaelic League 
(Pamphlet No. 16). 

Hyde swept aside Atkinson's charge that 
Irish was not a language but only a series of 
patois spoken by groups of peasants, each 
patois incomprehensible to one who spoke 
a different dialect. " There is no dialectic 
difference in Ireland," he said, " so wide as 
that which makes one half of England 
pronounce words which begin with a vowel 
or the letter ' h ' in a manner exactly oppo- 

66 



EDUCATION 



site to the other half. In fact England, being 
a larger country than Ireland, the differences 
in the dialects spoken over its area are far 
and away greater than any that exist in 
Ireland." 

Continuing in this strain, Hyde shewed 
that Irish is at least as accurate and fixed a 
language as English ; indeed the balance of 
opinion on the subject would shew that Irish 
is the more accurate and fixed. 

He then pointed out that there was much 
more accessible literature for Irishmen in 
Irish than in any continental language. 
That was true when he said it ; it is as true 
now. No one can go the round of the Dublin 
bookshops without being struck by the fact 
that there are no books to be had in French, 
Italian, Spanish or German except a few 
school books and an occasional French novel. 

Hyde refuted the charge of indecency at 
length. It is not necessary to repeat his 
defence. Such a defence was needed at a 
time when educational bodies were con- 
cerned with the question of teaching Irish, 
for educational bodies seem always to see 
indecency lying in wait for unsuspecting 
youth at every corner. Writing for persons, 
not '' educational bodies," it is sufficient to 
say that Irishmen are much like other 
Europeans, except that with one exception 
the modern Gaelic writers are almost mor- 
bidly proper. 

67 



EDUCATION. 



The support of Sir John Rhys, Owen 
Edwards, Alfred Nutt, E. C. Stern, Windisch, 
Dottin, Zimmer, York Powell, Kuno Meyer, 
Pederson, and others from the scholastic 
and linguistic point of view, and that of the 
Irish Party in the House of Commons, 
overbore the opposition of a few prejudiced 
Irish educationalists. 

The upshot of the matter was that Irish was 
given a prominent place in Intermediate edu- 
cation. This was a big step in the direction 
of the universal recognition of the language. 

Hyde of course was not alone in his labours. 
He was ably supported by a number of scholars, 
Eoin MacNeill, Dr. O'Hickey of Maynooth, 
Father Horgan, Father Dinneen, and others 
joined in the fray and helped in the victory. 

The success gained was of immense tactical 
importance. It brought the question of 
Gaelic into Irish politics as an immediate 
issue. Many who in their hearts cared as 
little about Gaelic as they did about Kams- 
katka were forced to do the language lip 
service. 

The skirl of the Irish pipes and the waving 
of Irish banners heralded the dawn of a re- 
Galicised Ireland, and around them rallied the 
Irish people in defence of a position the value 
of which they had not realised until it was 
nearly lost. 

The ravens' voices and the swaying bellies 
of the " representative men " may also be 

68 



EDUCATION. 



taken as a symbol of victory, for like chaff 
blown before the gale they clearly shew the 
direction of the wind. 

The really astonishing thing in the whole 
controversy is the amazing ignorance shewn 
by such men as Mahaffy, Bernard, and 
others of the literature of their own 
country. It is all summed up in the remark 
of a Fellow of Trinity : " I would rather 
have one line of Homer than the whole 
Book of Kells." The Book of Kells is an 
Irish illuminated manuscript of the four 
Gospels in Latin ! 

The Irish language has been the subject 
of study of numbers of the first scholars in 
France, Germany, and Scandinavia. It is 
impossible to spend ten minutes in the Irish 
Antiquaries section of the Dublin Museum 
without being convinced of the existence of 
a great civilisation in Ancient Ireland, all 
contact with which was being lost with the 
language. The name of every mountain and 
river teems with Irish story and romance, 
a romance to be closed for ever if the lan- 
guage dies. Where but in Ireland could a 
number of educated citizens be found to 
oppose the teaching of the national language 
and to advocate its extermination if possible? 

This book is not the place to refute argu- 
ments against Irish. Happily it is no longer 
necessary to attempt to do so. The Irish 



EDUCATION. 



people have awoken to the value of their 
own tongue, and the matter rests with 
them. They have heard the arguments, and 
they have decided that Irish shall be known 
by all who seek education at their hands. 

There are persons who object to Irish 
being made a compulsory subject, and who 
say that by doing so, as has been done in 
the National University, the spontaneity 
passes out of the movement, and that once 
it has become compulsory the virtue has 
passed from it. But these persons do not 
see that here there is a spontaneous desire 
for compulsion. It is spontaneous in that 
the persons who enforce it are the persons 
who must live and work under the rule. It 
is no more compulsory than to insist on 
being educated. Without the desire to be 
educated, a country would have no educa- 
tion. Once the desire is there spontaneously, 
the means of effecting it relate back to the 
spontaneity of the desire. 

It is the almost universal desire of Irish- 
men that Irish should be spoken once again 
all over Ireland. Not to the exclusion of 
English, for it is necessary for a small 
country to know a language other than its 
own, but in Ireland it is now, owing to the 
work of the Irish revivalists, generally de- 
sired that Irish should be the tongue of 
" college, mart, and senate." 

Therefore it is interesting to speculate as 



EDUCATION 



to how far they can succeed in their deter- 
mination. Bohemia and Wales have each 
revived a dying language, and therefore it 
is not an impossible task. But Irish has been 
allowed to die out over six-sevenths of the 
country. It practically only survives as a 
generally spoken language on the coast 
from Waterford to Derry, in the Glens of 
Antrim, and in a few isolated places else- 
where. Those who live in the Irish- speaking 
district and speak Irish are nearly all 
peasants who do not travel. Therefore each 
district tends to speak its own dialect, to 
use slightly different pronunciation, and a 
few phrases peculiar to itself. The difference 
in dialect is not very great, not nearly so 
great indeed as the difierence between the 
speech of Somerset and Lancashire. 

As things are, it will be some time before 
Ireland becomes generally Irish-speaking, 
if that day ever arrive. Assuming that it 
will, then the language will be spoken by a 
population that was six-sevenths English- 
speaking. It is inevitable that they will 
speak differently from the native- speaking 
peasant of Mayo or Waterford. In all pro- 
bability, the language as spoken will be 
largely unintelligible to a native speaker of 
the present day. But it will none the less be 
Irish. It will be as Irish as English is English 
or French French, possibly more so, as the 
Irish language lends itself to the formation of 
new words more readily than English or French . 

71 



EDUCATION 



If Irish is ever to be revived, it will be 
done through education. In this revival 
the towns will play a more important part 
than the country as learning tends to spread 
more quickly in thickly populated districts. 
It is not outside the range of possibility 
that a revived Irish will be spoken in the 
towns of Ireland when Irish has died out 
in the Irish speaking parts, and that it will 
spread over the country again from the 
towns. This language will be written as Gaelic 
is written now, though there may be some 
simplification in spelling. The words will 
be the same, but it is likely that the pro- 
nunciation will be greatly altered. This 
alteration would have been spread over the 
last three centuries had the language deve- 
loped along its natural lines. As it is, the 
alteration will be, in the life of a language, 
sudden, and in all probability drastic. Still 
the Irish language will have been saved and 
Ireland will be an Irish speaking country, 
her language part and parcel of her history. 

Whether or not Irish will ever be revived 
as a generally spoken language in Ireland is 
another question. A very large number of 
persons started learning the language in 
the end of the nineteenth century. 100,000 
copies of O'Growney's first book were sold 
in a few years. But Irish is one of the 
most difficult of European languages. Dutch 
is supposed to be a hard language to learn, 

72 



EDUCATION 



but Hyde has said that were Irish as easy 
as Dutch the whole of Ireland could be made 
Irish speaking in a year. The difficulty of 
learning Irish makes it a very valuable 
language as a medium of education. The 
man who has mastered Irish will find other 
languages a comparatively easy study. But 
there is the compensating disadvantage that 
learners are apt to become discouraged. That 
this is so is demonstrated beyond doubt by the 
fact that while the first book of O'Growney's 
had an enormous sale, that of the second 
and third books respectively was very much 
smaller. It is certainly true that great 
numbers of those who started to learn Irish 
have given it up in despair. On the other 
hand, the foundation of the " Summer 
Colleges," or schools to which students go 
during the summer holidays, has in an 
admirable manner helped those who are 
really keen to learn. There are eighteen of 
these schools, with an average of over 100 
pupils yearly in each college, or a total of 
over 1,800 a year. Over 14,000 pupils have 
attended these schools since they were foun- 
ded. The system of education is very good, 
and it may be taken that the majority of 
the students who have been passed through 
them have a fair working knowledge of 
Irish. 

The colleges are curiously like what the 
Irish Universities of the sixth to the twelfth 

73 



EDUCATION 



centuries must have been. They are usually 
in a wild part of the country, planted in the 
midst of an Irish speaking population. The 
" college " consists of a schoolhouse with 
one or more classrooms. The students live 
in the cottages surrounding the " college." 
They have thus the double advantage of 
hearing Irish spoken at all times of the day 
as the usual medium of intercourse and of 
getting lectures on the language, grammar, 
and poetry. The lectures are nearly always 
in Gaelic, as all the colleges teach on what 
is known as the " direct method." These 
little communities of students form an 
interesting feature of Irish life. They fit in 
well with the Irish nature and are a re- 
markable example of the survival of racial 
characteristics. 

When the early Irish scholars founded 
their schools they did not build elaborate 
buildings. The scholar simply built a lecture 
hall, and, if the fame of the teacher were 
great, students flocked to him from all parts 
of the country and from the adjacent lands 
of France, England, and Scotland. There 
were no prepared hostels ; the majority of 
the students built themselves wattle hu^ 
around the master's house and there lived 
in the greatest simplicity. So now the 
students stay in peasants' cottages and live 
on the simplest and coarsest of food, but 
there is never a lack of pupils. 

74 



EDUCATION 



The " colleges " are not run for profit ; 
in fact the majority of them coxild not 
exist were it not that a grant is given by the 
Department of Agricultm*e for each teacher 
who obtains a certificate in the language. 
The lecturers are nearly all enthusiasts for 
the language, who are either not paid or else 
paid so little that their pay hardly covers 
their expenses. All is done for love of the 
language. 

The Irish colleges have no official connec- 
tion with the Gaelic League but are entirely 
independent bodies. Besides the " colleges " 
there are the numerous branches of the 
Gaelic League, which have each their classes 
in Irish. The classes are generally held in 
the evenings and are attended by men and 
women who have other work to do during 
the day, but who give up several evenings a 
week to learning Irish. 

There was not a country town in Ireland 
without one or more branches of the Gaelic 
League. There are many branches in Dublin. 
Thus, besides the students of the " colleges," 
there are numbers who are learning Gaelic, 
in the League branches. There are also many 
learning outside the League, and besides 
these there are about 7,000 intermediate 
and 100,000 national school children learning 
Irish each year. 

As long as the students of Irish are as 
numerous as they now are it is impossible to 

75 



EDUCATION 



say that the chance of reviving the language 
is gone. The first rush to a new movement 
is always the greatest rush. Then comes 
the time when those who are fainthearted 
drop out and only those who are really 
determined to carry out their object remain. 
At a low estimate there are 5,000 persons 
learning Irish every year who, l3Ut for their 
own efforts, would not know a word of the 
language. It is not possible to say how many 
there actually are ; there may be 20,000, 
but it is safe to say 5,000. This is not 
enough to keep the language from declining, 
but it must be remembered that a large 
number of these enthusiasts will marry and 
will have their children taught Irish. Then 
Irish is now compulsory in the National 
University of Ireland. That means that a 
large proportion of the more educated young 
men and women of the country have at 
least a smattering of the language. The 
fashion among a large section of the country 
has set towards learning Irish, and it is to 
be expected that the next generation will 
have a far greater proportion of bi-lingual 
children than the present one. The facilities 
for learning Irish have enormously increased. 
It will be comparatively easy for the next 
generation to learn. 

Last, but not least, there has been a great 
change in the attitude of the Roman Catholic 
clergy to Irish. The majority of parish priests 

76 



EDUCATION 



now are men who passed through Maynooth 
before the Irish revival had taken hold of 
the people and before it had penetrated 
into Maynooth. It takes a long time for a 
clerical student to become a parish priest, 
a still longer time before he can become a 
bishop. But there is a change apparent. 
The older type of priest was often hostile to 
Gaelic. He was too old to learn it himself, and 
he did not want to be bothered with the 
language. This at one time led to a con- 
siderable wave of anti-clericalism in the 
League. Happily the younger priests are 
more often sympathisers with Gaelic and 
not only do all they can to encourage others 
to learn, but learn it themselves. 

Some of the bishops also are devoting 
more attention to securing Irish speaking 
priests for the Irish speaking districts. 
Notable in this work is the Bishop of Galway, 
Dr. O'Dea. Dr. O'Donnell, Bishop of 
Raphoe, has done a very great deal towards 
keeping Gaelic alive in his diocese. He 
employs one priest whose principal duty is 
travelling over the diocese making parents 
promise to speak Irish to their children, 
and doing everything he can to encourage 
the people to speak Irish. Unfortunately 
there are some bishops who do not take any 
interest at all in Irish, and one or two who 
even go so far as to discourage it ; but with 
the passing of a few years the old spirit will 

77 



EDUCATION 



die out and the new spirit will have far 
greater influence in the Church. 

The Protestant Episcopalian Church, 
though on the whole hostile or indifferent to 
Irish, is shewing signs of a change. For many 
years Irish services have been held on St. 
Patrick's Day in Dublin, and latterly Even- 
song has been held once a month in Irish 
in St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

With a determined body, gradually in- 
creasing in numbers, who are learning Irish, 
with the sympathy of the vast proportion 
of the country behind it, even if that sym- 
pathy is not so much active as passive ; 
with the support of the Church of the 
majority of Irishmen and a growing spirit of 
tolerance in that of the minority, it is not 
too much to expect that the speaking of 
Irish will gradually increase. Once that is 
so, it is not at all impossible that there may 
be a real return to Irish speaking and that 
Ireland may become a bilingual nation in 
the course of the present century. 



78 



CHAPTER V 

AMERICA : 
THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION. 

There are nearly five Irishmen in the United 
States of America for every one in Ireland. 
Thus every movement in Ireland is sure to 
find support in America. The Gaelic League 
had spread to America, several branches 
were formed in American cities, and Gaelic 
Leaguers on both sides of the Atlantic kept 
in touch with each other. 

When money has been needed for political 
propaganda in Ireland, the Irish Americans 
have never failed to subscribe largely ; they 
have never forgotten that they are Irish and 
always take a keen interest in everything 
affecting the land of their origin. Gaelic 
Leaguers in America were not to be outdone 
by members of political institutions, and 
in tHe winter of 1905-6 Hyde was invited 
over to tell the Americans about the League 
in Ireland and to collect money for increasing 
its field of work. 

In New York Hyde was received by Mr. 
John Quin, who planned a large tour of 
lectures and speeches. He visited cities and 
towns from New York to San Francisco^ 
and was everywhere welcomed with en- 
thusiasm. In San Francisco he had what 

79 



AMERICA 



was perhaps the most successful of all his 
visits and collected a large sum of money. 
Father Yorke and the Hon. Frank T. 
Sullivan worked wonders and subscribed 
freely. Nothing could have been better than 
Hyde's treatment. He left with full pockets, 
but when the earthquake of 1906 ruined the 
greater part of San Francisco, he gave the 
money that had been subscribed there to 
the relief fund. The inhabitants did not 
forget this, and when the prosperity of the 
town was restored they sent back the money 
to the Gaelic League. Hyde returned to 
Eastern America through Canada, and was 
able to revisit the places he had known 
while teaching there. 

The American tour was a great success ; 
more than £11,000 was collected and the 
number of Hyde's personal adherents was 
largely increased. The Americans have 
brought the art of interviewing up to a high 
pitch of perfection, and several of the inter- 
views which American reporters got from 
Hyde are very amusing. It is impossible 
to do more than indicate the impression he 
made on Americans, but the following lines 
from Milwaukee give an American view of 
him : " Dr. Hyde is a man of sturdy build 
and countenance. His voice is fine and 
mellow, his manner quick and alert. An 
understanding of the great strides he had 
made is found in the virility the first 

80 



AMERICA 



glimpse of his personality gives. He is 
Gaelic head and heels. No other language is 
spoken in his household, although his English 
is prime. He is genial, gentle, and withal 
tireless. These qualities have helped him 
work his seeming miracles with the Irish 
nation." 

Hyde made an innovation as a collector 
of money for a cause. He published a balance 
sheet shewing exactly what he had collected. 
This had never been done by anyone on a 
similar mission. 

The £11,000 collected in 1905-6 was of 
immense use to the League. In a way it 
may be said that the present position of Irish 
in Irish education is due to the support of 
the American Irish. A condition was 
attached to the gift that not more than 
£2,000 should be spent in any one year ; 
thus from 1905 to 1910 the Gaelic League 
had an extra fighting fund of £2,000 a year. 
This just carried the League through the 
struggle about Irish in the National Uni- 
versity of Ireland, a struggle on which de- 
pended the ultimate success or failure of the 
Gaelic revival. 

It is a pity to dismiss Hyde's tour in 
America in so brief a space, but it is not 
possible here to give it an adequate account. 
This book is concerned with his work in 
Ireland, and his work elsewhere is only 
touched on where it directly concerns his 

81 



AMERICA 



Irish work. His American work here leads 
up to the biggest effort yet made by Hyde 
and the League — the fight over Irish in the 
National University. 

Irish was now a recognised subject on the 
programmes of National and Intermediate 
education in Ireland. This had been brought 
about by the successful agitation of the 
Gaelic League, with Hyde as its leader. But 
the crown yet remained to be placed on the 
work. 

University education in Ireland had for 
years been a burning question. The Roman 
Catholics felt much aggrieved that they had 
no University. Dublin University, of which 
Trinity is the only college, was regarded as 
a purely Protestant institution. It had un- 
doubtedly been an absolutely Protestant 
University, but by degrees the sectarian 
rules have been relaxed until the only dis- 
tinctively Protestant marks that remain are 
the Divinity School and the College Chapel. 
Nevertheless the Catholics of Ireland felt 
that the atmosphere of Trinity was not 
desirable for their children and that they 
must have a more distinctively Catholic 
University. An attempt had been made 
in the founding of the " Royal University " 
to supply higher education of a non-sectarian 
character ; but the Royal University was 
more an examining body than a University, 

82 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

and did not in any way satisfy the wants of 
the CathoHcs. Their regard for its rehgious 
position may be gathered from the nick- 
name given to its constituent parts — " the 
Godless colleges." 

The British Government at last decided 
that a new University should be set up in 
Ireland which was to provide higher educa- 
tion for those who for one reason or another 
did not go to Trinity College. As is usual 
in such cases a commission was set up to 
enquire into the best means of doing this. 
But the commission, of which Hyde was a 
member, did not attempt to dictate the 
educational programme of the new Univer- 
sity. It was far more concerned with whether 
there was to be a new University or a new 
College under Dublin University. The 
violent opposition of Trinity to the creation 
of a new College under Dublin University, 
an opposition which it may live to regret, 
made a new University the only solution, 
and accordingly an Act of Parliament was 
passed to that effect. To the Senate of the 
new University was left the settling of the 
education to be given therein. 

At first it was assumed by Gaelic Leaguers 
that some knowledge of Irish would be made 
compulsory on all students in the " National 
University," as it was decided to name the 
new body. This assurance lasted a con- 
siderable time, and Leaguers were rejoiced 

83 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

at the idea that they would see the national 
language hold a high place in the new centre 
of Irish education. 

Into this atmosphere of calm confidence 
Dr. Delaney of the old Royal University 
threw a bombshell which in a moment fired 
the country to a blaze of controversy. In 
the course of a speech the Reverend Doctor 
asked why the uneducated language of the 
peasant should be a test for University 
education. It would be difficult to imagine 
a sentence more calculated to arouse the 
indignation of patriotic Gaels. The fury 
awakened by the evidence of Dr. Mahaffy 
and Dr. Atkinson at the Intermediate Edu- 
cation Commission had but served to spur 
many unthinking men into enthusiasm. Now 
the ground had been prepared ; the voices 
of Irish and foreign scholars had already 
been raised to refute the charge that Irish 
was an uncultured tongue. The weapons 
were ready to the hand of the Gaelic League, 
and the spirit was ready in the people to fight 
in its battles. 

But this time the challenge had come 
almost from within the pale of the League. 
It seemed as though the church to which 
Irishmen had clung through centuries of 
persecution was about to turn against the 
ideals of the people. Such an antagonist 
would be more formidable than a host of 
alien foes. 

84 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

The challenge was taken up, and the 
League collected its forces at a meeting in 
the Rotunda. The Rotunda is the largest 
public Hall in Dublin, and has been the scene 
of many of the most stirring incidents in 
modern Irish history. Built as a house of 
recreation in the days when Dublin boasted 
a rich and luxurious aristocracy, it had first 
been used for balls and routs. Then as a 
place for political meetings it had heard one 
of Parnell's last speeches when his followers 
in Dublin rallied to the support of their 
doomed leader. Now it has once again 
changed with the times and is the home of 
a cinematograph exhibition. 

But in the winter of 1908 it was still used 
for public meetings, and here it was that 
Hyde met his adherents to tell them of the 
new danger which threatened the Irish 
language and to call on them to fight for it 
once more. As it was the opening of the 
campaign, those who thronged the room 
were anxious and uncertain as to what plan 
their leader would adopt. Would he advise 
a moderate and conciliatory reply to the 
challenge, or would he return blow for blow ? 
An Craoibhin answered the unspoken ques- 
tion in the following words—" There will be 
a fight." he said, '^ as there was a fight in 
the days of the Confederation of Kilkenny 
between the old Irish and the new Irish, 
between the Marquis of Ormond and Owen 

85 G 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

Roe O'Neill ; and if anyone wants to know 
on which side I shall be, I'll be on the side 
of Owen Roe." 

From that moment the supporters of the 
League threw their most desperate energies 
into the fight ; so fierce was the struggle, so 
intense the spirit which animated the pro- 
tagonists that many of the League's most 
devoted members seriously injured their 
physical health by the labours and exertions 
they undertook. The opponents of compul- 
sory Irish also gathered together, and the 
controversy ran riot through the land. The 
Catholic Hierarchy on the whole favoured 
those who wished to make Irish only an 
optional subject, but the sagacity of the 
Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh and the 
Archbishop of Dublin prevented the ques- 
tion becoming an openly clerical and anti- 
clerical dispute. Both the last mentioned 
prelates have stood by the Gaelic League, 
and Cardinal Logue, a fluent Irish speaker 
and sometime professor of Irish at Maynooth, 
has frequently spoken both in Irish and 
English on behalf of the Irish language. 
The Bishops declared that the matter was 
" a question for fair argument." 

Hyde and MacNeill led on the fight for the 
language. Dillon was the secular chief of 
the opponents. Dr. O'Hickey of Maynooth 
was the most determined clerical supporter 
of the League. Careless of his position, he 

86 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

wrote a series of letters in which he 
denounced the opponents of compulsory 
Irish in scathing terms. Of some he said 
that if they needs must find an outlet for 
their superfluous energy, " why not address 
themselves . . to the task of making London 
University German ... to that of making 
Victoria University Japanese." Again he 
wrote — " Let the men of Ireland pause and 
ponder before they commit themselves to a 
policy w^hich cannot fail to be a fatal blunder. 
Before them lies the primrose path of ex- 
pediency, adown which the voice of the siren 
invites them, but whose end is national 
damnation, as also the thorny and doubtless 
less alluring path of National duty leading 
onward to national salvation." But the 
climax of this daring priest's audacity was 
reached when, at a lecture to some students 
at Maynooth, he spoke of the clerical mem- 
bers of the Senate of the University ; having 
praised Archbishop Walsh for his invaluable 
services, he said, " As for the other clerical 
senators, I shall say nothing further than to 
recommend them to your earnest prayers." 
The courage of the remark is intensified 
when it is remembered that among the 
clerical Senators was Cardinal Mannix, then 
President of Maynooth. The breach of 
discipline, for so it was regarded, was not 
readily forgiven, and Dr. O'Hickey was 
removed from his chair and thenceforth 

87 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

debarred from that career which he would 
otherwise doubtless have enjoyed. It is to 
Dr. O'Hickey's words that much of the 
success of the fight must be attributed. In 
1916 he passed away, leaving Ireland to 
mourn the loss of a courageous son, the 
Church to regret a fearless priest, and the 
language movement to remember a most 
faithful champion. 

Eoin MacNeill also spoke and wrote vigor- 
ously on the subject. His pamphlet on 
" National Education in Ireland " had a 
large circulation and considerable influence. 
Others less well known but not less ardent 
worked with might and main. Mr. O'Daly 
as Secretary of the League, had an immense 
burden thrown on his shoulders. Not only 
had he to organise the campaign, but he 
had also to supply information to enthu- 
siastic supporters whose enthusiasm was 
greater than their knowledge of the facts and 
arguments which should have aroused it. 

Meetings were held all over Ireland to 
advocate compulsory Irish. It would be 
tedious to mention them. A series of big 
meetings is wearisome to describe. The 
enthusiasm of the orator is frozen as it passes 
into print, and it is difficult to melt it again 
into a semblance of life. It is enough to say 
that meetings were held in each city and big 
town in Ireland. Hyde attended many, and 
nearly wore himself to a shadow by his 
constant speaking and writing. 

88 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

The Irish Nationahst Party had not taken 
any definite side in the matter. Some mem- 
bers were in favour of, some against, compul- 
sory Irish. The atmosphere of anti-cleri- 
caHsm that hung around those who were for 
Irish frightened some members, others from 
genuine conviction were in favour of purely 
optional Irish. Of these Mr. John Dillon was 
leader. Mr. Boland was the most prominent 
advocate of compulsion. 

The Irish Party was accustomed to hold a 
" convention " once a year, at which its 
mandate to represent the Irish people was 
renewed and at which it gave an account 
of its work in the past session. A convention 
is formed of delegates from all nationalist 
political organisations, together with priests 
and representatives of local government 
bodies. In February, 1909, one of these 
conventions was held, and here the question 
of the party's attitude was to be decided. 
Much hung on the decision, and it was felt 
that the result of the meeting would show 
which side was to carry its point. 

Mr. Boland moved—" That this conven- 
tion approves of the inclusion of the Irish 
language among the compulsory subjects 
for matriculation at the National University 
of Ireland." There never had been any 
question as to the proposer, but to find a 
seconder was a matter of some nicety. It 
was thought wise to have a priest as seconder 

89 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

of the resolution, but Father O'Hickey was 
not a member of the convention, and it was 
difficult to ask a priest to undertake a work 
which would almost certainly deprive him 
of all chance of future promotion in the 
Church. The matter had been for days one 
of anxious consideration, but no one had 
stepped forward to the post of danger. At 
the eleventh hour the Rev. Malachi Brennan 
came to the offices of the Gaelic League and, 
at Hyde's request, undertook the task. 

Mr. Boland moved his resolution in a 
temperate speech. Father Brennan seconded 
ably and without abuse or rancour. It 
should be added that his adherence to the 
cause of the Irish language did not escape its 
predicted consequences. He was forbidden 
to take any further public action in the 
matter. He undoubtedly risked his whole 
future when he seconded the motion. The 
students and professors of the National 
University who rejoice that Irish is the 
foremost subject in their colleges should 
honour the clerical martyrs who suffered 
that they should benefit. 

Mr. John Dillon opposed the motion. He 
spoke long and, it need not be said, ably. 
But even the ablest speaker cannot convert 
a hostile audience unless right is so over- 
whelmingly on his side that Justice herself 
seems to force conviction on the unwilling 
hearers. Mr. Dillon was constantly inter- 

90 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

rupted, his hearers had made up their minds, 
and after a courageous but useless struggle 
he had to give up the fight. An Craoibhin, 
though not a member of any political 
organisation, and not entitled to be present 
at the convention, had been asked to come. 
He was called upon by Mr. Redmond to 
speak as soon as Mr. Dillon sat down. When 
he rose the whole room burst into tumul- 
tuous applause. He said that both he and 
Mr. Dillon were agreed in welcoming the 
intense interest shewn by the country in 
education. " Why are the people taking 
such an interest in education," he asked? 
"It is because the Irish language has gal- 
vanised into life the latent love of the people 
for learning." 

The chairman put the resolution without 
expressing any opinion, and had no hesita- 
tion in declaring it carried. The political 
as well as the language organisations of 
Ireland had decided that Irish must be learnt 
by all who sought education at their hands. 

It need not be said that the decision of the 
convention was received with disgust and 
dismay by the English element in Ireland, 
but the matter was not yet decided. The 
Senate had full power to decide as they 
chose, and they had strong backing from the 
Irish Times and the other Unionist papers, 
which had always opposed Irish in any form. 

On each St. Patrick's Day it was custo- 
91 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

mary for the Gaelic League to organise a 
procession through the streets of Dubhn. 
This procession was also a sort of pageant 
in which were displayed scenes from Irish 
history or tableaux representing points in the 
situation which, while they amused the 
spectators, would at the same time arouse in 
their breasts feelings of patriotism or awaken 
them to new points of view in current matters 
affecting the Irish language. These proces- 
sions were of considerable size, and had 
usually ended in a meeting in some open 
space in the city, generally Smithfield Mar- 
ket. Though the St. Patrick's Day proces- 
sions were large, in the September of 1909 
a procession was organised, the largest that 
had ever been seen in Ireland. 

On this occasion Gaelic Leaguers did not 
march because they wished to make a mere 
display of their strength and enthusiasm, 
but to shew the multitude that they were 
determined to have Irish a compulsory sub- 
ject in the new University. It seemed to the 
onlookers as though the passing throng of 
Gaels would never cease. Banners and 
placards displayed above the procession 
called on the spectators to join also in defence 
of the language of their fatherland. Tableaux 
old and new dehghted their eyes, and short 
plays of perhaps three minutes' duration, 
acted on the tops of large lorries, alternately 
aroused their fury or their derisive laughter 

92 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

as they saw the representatives of AngUcisa- 
tion attempt to stay the national movement, 
or reduced to a position of ridiculous humilia- 
tion. The procession, which in actual fact 
took three hours to pass any one point on 
its route, ended in Sackville Street, and one of 
its most significant sights was a band of 
many thousand schoolboys, chiefly from the 
schools of the Christian Brothers. In Sack- 
ville Street platforms were erected at inter- 
vals, so that by having many speakers there 
might be some chance of reaching the ears 
of all the assembled crowd. The hope was 
vain, for from one end to the other the street 
was packed with an unbroken body of men, 
women, and children. Not one half of those 
present can have heard the speeches, but 
those that heard were able to pass on the 
points made to those who could not hear, 
and the shouts of the host showed that to 
the common citizen of Dublin as well as to 
the enthusiast who had joined the procession, 
the cause of the Irish language was dear. 

On the platforms were many of those who 
had founded the League, and of those who 
had worked for it during the battles for Irish 
in the schools, but there was a new element 
present which represented a force capable 
of bringing powerful and practical support 
to whichever side it chose to assist, the 
County Councils of Ireland. 

Representatives from nearly all the County 
93 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

Councils attended the meeting, and shewed 
by their presence that in the country as well 
as in the Capital the Gaelic movement had 
mastered the people. In the construction 
of the new University, the Senate of which 
was deciding on the position of Irish, it had 
been considered advisable to afford a means 
of enabling students too poor to pay for their 
own education to do so with the aid of public 
monies. To this end the County Councils 
had been empowered to provide funds for 
scholarships. The County Councils were 
further empowered to attach conditions to 
their scholarships. Now this power was used 
as a means of ensuring that the popular will 
should be reflected in the teaching of the 
University. Many County Councils declared 
that unless Irish were made a compulsory 
subject they would make it a condition that 
those who held their scholarships should 
enjoy them at Trinity College. When the 
Senate came to decide finally upon the 
matter, the wisdom of those who wished 
to make Irish an optional subject was 
tempered by the thought that by doing 
so they would deprive colleges of a fruitful 
source of income. The representatives of 
the County Councils at the meeting in 
Sackville Street shewed that the Senate 
would have a strong opposition to fight 
against. 

The speakers were Hyde, MacNeill, and 
94 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

many others well known as Gaelic Leaguers. 
Sir Joseph Glynn also spoke, and he uttered 
a warning which should be remembered by 
any body which attempts to throw Irish 
from the place that has been won for it. 
*'Some think that if they defeat the cause of 
Irish in the University their troubles are at 
an end, but they will find that it is only then 
that their troubles begin " was the gist of 
his speech. 

Those who walked in the procession or 
attended the meeting did so with the feeling 
that they were taking part in a great battle 
for a national ideal. They left with the 
sensation that the battle was won and that 
there was no force in Ireland great enough 
to withstand their assault. 

The crowd in Sackville Street might be re- 
garded as only representing the enthusiasts. 
The wise might say that the great mass of the 
people, untouched by the fire of the Gaelic 
Movement, would look with cold eyes on the 
cause and would prefer the musical jingle of 
coins in their pockets to the tones of the 
Irish speech. But the Irish speech proved 
more attractive to the Irish people than the 
thought of money. The pathetic spectacle 
of English Catholics standing at the doors 
of their University purse in hand beseeching 
admission, while a stony hearted janitor 
refused, in a language which they did not 
comprehend, to admit them or their money, 

95 



THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION 

was suggested to the imagination of Irish- 
men. They were not affected by the sad 
picture, but maintained that the tJniversity 
was for Irishmen and that they only must 
be considered. 

A deputation from the General Council 
of County Councils was received by the 
Senate with that courtesy and consideration 
which those who can give or withhold money 
ever command. The deputation was headed 
by Mr. Ennis, who told the Senate that the 
Irish County Councils, through their general 
Council, wished to have Irish placed on the 
course for matriculation as a compulsory 
subject. 

The Senate bowed to the demand of the 
Nation, and by a narrow majority decided 
that Irish should be compulsory on all Irish 
students, thus permitting those who from 
foreign birth were not able to speak Gaelic 
to pass in other subjects alone. 

The University has now been open for 
some years. The number of undergraduates 
justifies the assertion that compulsory Irish 
has had no effect in keeping students away. 
The Gaelic Society of the University is 
thronged with members who debate and 
converse in Irish. The University has become 
a centre of all Irish activities. 



96 



CHAPTER VI 

HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 

Here and there throughout the earher 
chapters reference has been made to Hyde's 
scholarship and learning, but in the descrip- 
tion of him as a man of action his character 
as an author has hardly appeared in its true 
light. It is safe to say that had the Gaelic 
League never been founded, and had there 
been no movement for the revival of Irish, 
Hyde would, from his writings alone, be 
regarded as one of the foremost Irishmen of 
his day. 

Before he came to Trinity College he had 
written poems in the Irish tongue, the true 
medium of his thoughts. Since then he 
has published many books both in Irish and 
English. When we remember the extent of 
his work in other fields, we are amazed at the 
amount of his literary work. 

Some of his Irish poetry first appeared in 
the Dublin University Review, which, edited 
first by Mr. T. W. Rolleston and then by 
Mr. George Coffey, was published monthly 
from 1884 to 1887 by a number of young 
men chiefly from Trinity College. This 
magazine published the writings of many 
men who were then or who have become 
famous. Amongst the contributors are 

97 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



found Standish O'Grady, W. B. Yeats, 
Michael Davitt, C. F. Bastable, and John 
Todhunter, to take at random some of the 
better known names. Hyde was a contri- 
butor to the review, both in Irish and 
Enghsh. One of his early Irish poems 
published therein is a lament for the dis- 
appearance of the Irish people from their 
land, called " Smaointe Bhroin " (sad 
thoughts). This appeared in August, 1886. 
In the same year an article on the unpub- 
lished songs of Ireland appeared. Hyde's 
first book was a collection of Irish stories 
called " Leabhar Sgeuluigheachta," which 
came out in 1889. From that year to the 
present he has written books of poetry and 
history. Scarcely a year has passed without 
seeing one or more of his works published. 

It would be out of place in this book to 
give lengthy extracts from his writings in 
Irish, but it is impossible to appreciate Hyde's 
work without some quotations from his Irish 
as well as his English works. As his earliest 
writings were in Irish and his whole life has 
been devoted to the Irish language, it is 
right to speak of his Gaelic work first and of 
his English work later. 

Hyde's early publications in Gaelic consist 
of a few original poems, such as that pub- 
lished in the Dublin University Review^ and 
of many folk tales and poems which he collected 
from the peasantry in the West of Ireland. 

98 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



His Irish poetry is sonorous and full of 
depth and feeling. A few lines quoted are of 
far more value as an appreciation than any 
description. For those who know no Irish 
it is impossible to show the beauty of the 
lines ; a translation of a poem is a mockery 
unless made by a poet. They may, however, 
console themselves in that Hyde has also 
written verses in English which, though they 
have not the same richness as his Gaelic 
poems and do not seem to come truly from 
his inmost nature, at least can give the reader 
a wholesome feeling of self pity for what he 
has lost in not knowing Irish. In an Irish- 
man the feeling of self pity may be lost in 
one of shame. 

Here are some lines : — 

1f 'oo^ACA AtioCc i An oit)6e, ni freicim Aor\ feutc AxiiSm, 
Aguf If "oofCA CjAotn ACA ftriAOitice tno Cfoi'Oe-f e zS 

f^AOltce A|\ pAtl. 

\Y.\ co|\|\Aii A^\\ t)it Ann mo timCiolt, aCc nA ti-^AnlAit 

•oiil-tAfc Of mo CeAnn 
tiA fitbAm-Oe A5 buAlAt) nA fpeife te buitte f ax)- 

tAft\Ain5te f Ann. 
xSstif CA5;Ann An lreA'065 mAf pitt6i|\. A5 geAffAt) nA 

n-oix)Ce le f cat), 
xS^tif cUnnim nA ^Acte f lA'OAine if AM(me 'f if 5Aift>e 

fSfeA-o, 
A6z Aon toff Ann eite ni CUiinim if 6 fin "oo 

meu*0Ai5 mo t>fCn 
Aon toff Ann eile aCc fSfioc Ajuf 5tA0t)AC nA n-eun 

A^ An mom. 



99 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



T)'imti5 T1A iD^oine t)i t)ilif, riA •OAoine "oa "ocus m6 

mo st^At) 
|\Ait) fMT> "oibijAte f5Aoilce o'n Xfr\\\ Ann a|\ cog-At) 

me CjiAt ? 
As Mf^fAit:) pAfgAt) aY 'ominn o'n mboCcAnuf A^uf 

A.n|\6 
Ann f An cit\ Ann a t^Aib fiAX) fuit)ce ni'l Anoif aCc An 

6ao|\a Y An Do. 
Ua An t)6 xx'f An Cao|\a A5 innDeuf ai^ tuifg nA 

n*OAoine, mo lenn ! 
Ann A^z 5Ai|te nA bpAifceAT) 'f nA teAnlD ni Cluinim 

aCc 5tA0'6AC nA n-eun, 
T)o mtiCAt) 5aC coinneAll aV folAf "oo t^i-OeA-O 

1 n"oof Af 5Ae cije 
If e bAf Aguf -oibijAC nA ntJAOine t)o meu-OAij mo DjAon 

Ann mo C|^oit)e. 



The remainder of his early pubhcations 
are folk tales. These, not calling upon the 
imagination or taste of the transcriber, call 
for qualities of a different but high nature. 
Patience, tact, and a good memory are essen- 
tial in the first instance, then scholarship. 
The clear crystal of Hyde's transcriptions 
proclaim them the work of a poet as much 
as of a scholar. 

Hyde gives a few directions to the seeker 
after folk tales which may be quoted here :— 

" There are considerable difficulties," he says, " in 
the way of collecting old songs and legends, especially 
if the collector cares to be accurate and to take down 
things verbatim, for we fancy that all pursuers of folk- 
lore have found how the appearance of a paper and 
pencil acts immediately as a species of wet blanket 

100 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



which overawes the reciter. . . . He hates, moreover, to 
be questioned about words or phrases, and probably 
ends by becoming irritable if you insist on the explana- 
tion of some archaism which you do not understand^ 
and to which he possibly had never attached any 
meaning. 

'* Of course as it is impossible to trust one's memory 
to retain a song of any length, and as the time at which 
one first hears it is generally no time for taking it down, 
one must only be content to make a mental note of how 
many verses were sung and comfort oneself with the 
hope of getting them at some future time. ... It is 
generally from the old men and old women in the 
chimney-corner that one draws the best things. Sitting 
over the smoke of a turf fire, and discussing a piece of 
twist tobacco, which you share with the ' ban a tee,' 
you can pretty easily sound her as to her knowledge 
about the Fianna Eireann, as to the songs and 'bubberos * 
(spinning wheel songs) which she used to sing as a girl ; 
and often she will feel rather flattered than otherwise 
at your noting down her verses.'* 

These words were written in I086.. Then 
there were few collectors of Irish folk tales, 
and therefore the apparition of a ST:uden.fc, 
notebook in hand, no doubt had a very 
terrifying effect on the old men and women. 
Nowadays it is hard to find any corner of 
the country where hundreds of fishers for 
folklore have not come, and the shanachies 
have become quite accustomed to having 
their stories written down by strange people 
of wild appearance and curious tongue. It 
is not unusual for a well dressed stranger 
speaking Gaelic to be asked " Are you a 
German ? " 

101 H 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



But in the old days when story hunting 
was still a more or less unknown art Hyde 
was at work. It is difficult to imagine one 
who could more quickly put a shy shanachie 
at his ease and draw him out. 

As for the old w^omen, like Paudraig 
Crohore, " there isn't a girl from ninety-five 
under, no matter how cross, but he could 
come round her." One can see him as a sHm 
youth entering a cabin and sitting down by 
the old woman of the house, lamenting the 
hard times, praising the children, and gradu- 
ally softening the old woman's heart, until, 
sitting in the chimney corner, puffing at her 
pipe, now and then stopping to scold a too 
obstreperous grandchild, she would tell him 
her store of tales and poems. Or again, 
mixing a brew of punch to open the lips of 
some old; man w^ho with cracked voice and 
scant breath would tell interminable stories 
or sing endless songs. Meanwhile Hyde, 
with guileless face, playing with a child or a 
puppy on the hearth, would be storing up 
in his memory the tales which he would 
write down that night, and publish with 
learned notes next year. Given one man or 
a thousand, Hyde at once creates a sense of 
fellowship between himself and his audience. 

The results of his labours as a collector of 
folk tales first appeared in the " Leabhar 
Sgeuluigheachta " mentioned above. It was 
followed by a publication of translations of 

102 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Irish tales called Beside the Fire, in 1890, and 
in 1891 an Irish version of the same, Cois na 
Teifie. Then in 1894 came The Love Songs 
of ConnaughU a book of originals and trans- 
lations of Irish poems which attracted a good 
deal of attention in Ireland and elsewhere. 

In 1895 appeared The Story of Early Gaelic 
Literature, This small book, one of a series 
called the " New Irish Library," published 
by Fisher Unwin at Is. each, was hailed with 
delight by Irishmen and with a mixture of 
pleasure and astonishment by Englishmen. 
It is perhaps worth while here to say a word 
about the " New Irish Library/' which was 
published at the instigation of Sir Charles 
Gavan Duffy. In his editorship he was aided 
by Hyde, T. W. Rolleston, and Barry 
O'Brien. This series contained a number of 
books of great value to Irishmen, of which 
two at least have passed into Irish classics. 
Standish O'Grady's Bog of Stars and J. F. 
Taylor's Owen Roe O'Neill are each master- 
pieces in their line, and should be read by 
all who are interested either in Ireland or in 
fine writing. Alas! both are out of print, 
but it is likely that new editions will come 
out. Ireland owes a heavy debt to Gavan 
Duffy if for nothing else for two series of 
books published under his direction. The 
first published by Duffy contained Father 
Meehan's Confederation of Kilkenny, Gavan 
Duffy's Bird's-eye View of Irish History, The 

103 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Prose Writings of Thomas Davis among a 
number of valuable books. The second, in 
which Hyde's Story of Early Gaelic Literature 
appeared, besides Standish O' Grady's and 
J. F. Taylor's books, includes the Life 
of Sarsfield by Todhunter, Swift, by R. Ashe 
King, and A Short Life of Davis by Gavan 
Duffy. 

To return from this digression — and attrac- 
tive digressions offer themselves in every 
direction to the writer of Hyde's life, the 
Story of Early Gaelic Literature gave for the 
first time, in a popular and accessible form, 
an account of the early literature of Ireland. 
The works of O' Curry had been published 
for years, but besides the formidable size of 
his books, their yet more formidable price 
terrified the casual reader. It was easy to 
talk about the treasures of ancient Irish 
learning, but not one in ten of those who 
boasted of their country's learning could 
name half a dozen of her works of scholar- 
ship. Hyde now supplied a key to early Irish 
literature which opened for Irishmen the 
portals of that long-inaccessible land. 

In 1899 Hyde followed up the Story of 
Early Gaelic Literature with his Literary 
History of Ireland (also published by Fisher 
Unwin in a series of " Literary Histories.") 
The name Literary History of Ireland is 
somewhat misleading, as the reader who 
expects to find the names of the great 

104 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Anglo- Irish authors is disappointed ; a more 
accurate title would be A History of Gaelic 
Literature in Ireland, This book first covers 
the ground of the Story of Early Gaelic 
Literature in a fuller way, and then carries 
on the history down to the eighteenth 
century. In it he gives a clear and concise 
account of the writers of Ireland, and 
amplifies it with many translations both 
in prose and in verse. If we except Dr. 
Sigerson, no one has succeeded as does Hyde 
in reproducing in English verse the com- 
plicated Irish metres bristling with allitera- 
tion, internal rhyme and assonance. 
It is well to give a few examples: — 

OSSIAN AND ST. PATRICK. 

Long was last night in cold Elphin, 
More long is to-night on its weary way, 

Though yesterday seemed to me long and ill, 
Yet longer still was this dreary day. 

And long for me is each hour new born, 
Stricken, forlorn and smit with grief 

For the hunting lands and the Fenian bands, 
And the long-haired, generous Fenian chief. 



Ask, Patrick, thy god of grace, 

To tell me the place he will place me in, 

And save my soul from the 111 One's might, 
For long is to-night in cold Elphin. 

105 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



ST. COLUMCILLE'S LAMENT. 

Too swiftly my coracle flies on her way, 
From Derry I mournfully turned her prow, 

I grieve at the errand that drives me to-day 
To the Land of the Ravens, to Alba, now. 



How swiftly we travel ! there is a grey eye 
Looks back upon Erin, but it no more 

Shall see while the stars shall endure in the sky 
Her women, her men, and her stainless shore. 



O bear me my blessing afar to the west 

For the heart in my bosom is broken ; I fail. 

Should death of a sudden now pierce my breast, 
I should die of the love that I bear the Gael ! 

This is perhaps the most beautiful of all : — 

How happy the son is of Dima ! No sorrow 

For him is designed. 
He is having this hour, round his own cell in Durrow, 

The wish of his mind. 



The sound of the wind in the elms, hke the strings of 

A harp being played, 
The note of the blackbird that claps with the wings of 

Delight in the glade. 



With him in Rosgrencha the cattle are lowing 

At earliest dawn ; 
On the brink of the summer the pigeons are cooing. 

And doves on the lawn. 

106 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



or a quotation which ilhistrates the purely 
technical difficulties of Irish verse : — 

Would I were in Collavin, 
Where haunteth Teig O'Higinn, 
There my lease of life were free 
From strife in peace and plenty." 

These verses are only given by Hyde as 
illustrations of the difficulties of Irish verse^ 
but in themselves they show his skill as a 
translator and versifyer. 

It is from the point of view of scholarship 
that the two books on Irish literature are to 
be considered. 

The Literary History at once impresses the 
reader as being the work of a scholarly mind. 
In the early chapters this is shown in a 
careful analysis of the earliest writing from 
the point of view of historical accuracy. 
Hyde does not take anything for granted, 
but works carefully from step to step in his 
enquiry as to how far it is possible to rely on 
the early authorities and as to how much of 
the legendary history of Ireland is founded 
on fact. His critical attitude towards Irish 
literature is maintained all through, in places 
he almost seems to be unduly cautious, and, 
following too many other Irish historians, 
to reject as unproved episodes, which if they 
were related in the history of any other land 
would be readily accepted as true. All this 
is extremely interesting in the light it throws 
on Hyde's character. The leader of a popular 

107 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



movement seldom shows moderation and 
restraint in his writings on subjects akin to 
his movement. It is not easy to imagine 
Mr. Lloyd George in the middle of his late 
campaign against the House of Lords writing 
with moderation about the Enclosure Acts. 
Hyde, however, in his Literary History, quite 
throws over the attitude of the propa- 
gandist. It is hard at times to realise that 
the man who is urging men to preserve at 
all costs their national thoughts and tongue 
is at the same time writing a careful criti- 
cism, sympathetic no doubt, of the very 
source from which the national thoughts and 
tongue are to be taken. This is, of course, 
a superficial view, for it is by the careful 
study of Irish Literature that Hyde has 
come to see how important it is that Irishmen 
should learn to value and treasure it. It is 
by knowing and appreciating both its merits 
and defects that Irishmen should appraise 
their literature. Damning with overpraise 
has killed many an author and might kill a 
literature. 

Hyde as an author comes in a group of 
distinguished Irish writers who have each 
given to and taken from the others and have 
built up a literature distinct from that of 
their predecessors. Standish O'Grady, W. 
B. Yeats, George Russell {M), and a group 
of Abbey playwrights all owe something to 
Hyde and Hyde to Yeats and O'Grady, 

108 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Edward Martyn seems to stand outside this 
group. He is more part of the Continental 
spirit of the end of the nineteenth century, 
tempered with the strength of the early 
eighteenth century. His little known satire, 
" Morgante the Lesser," written before he 
came in touch with the Irish literary revival, 
shows a mind which has been formed on 
quite other lines than those of the Celtic 
tradition. It is only Irish in that there has 
been no book of the sort written since Swift 
which shows such strength and directness. 

Yeats, however, owes much to Hyde. He 
has been by him introduced into a realm of 
literature which has profoundly influenced 
his writings. In " The Lake Isle of 
Innisfree," a poem which has been so much 
quoted as nearly to have become hackneyed, 
there is a feeling akin to that of the early 
Celtic church as seen in the writings of her 
monks. Yeats fell under the enchantment 
of the movement for the revival of Irish, 
and for some years used to appear on Gaelic 
platforms. Lady Gregory, who may be re- 
garded as a disciple of Yeats, but who has 
undoubtedly influenced his writings, knows 
some Irish and has translated and published 
literary, as distinct from purely scholarly, 
translations of Irish tales. Thus Hyde may, 
without detracting from Yeats' genius as an 
author, be said to have left a mark on his 
writings. Yeats also has helped Hyde's 

109 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



work. He has always been a eonsumate 
debater, and in words and writings has 
supported the Irish language movement. 
He also, in conjunction with Edward 
Martyn, created the Irish Literary Theatre, 
from which the present Abbey Theatre grew. 
At one of the earliest of the performances of 
the Irish Literary Theatre " Maeve," by 
Edward Martyn, " Diarmuid and Grania," 
a curious and unsuccessful collaboration by 
Yeats and Mr. George Moore, and Hyde's 
first play, " Casadh an tSugan " (The Twis- 
ting of the Rope), were produced. This 
short comedy was the first play in Irish to 
be acted at one of the bigger Dublin theatres, 
the Gaiety. Hyde himself acted in the 
principal part, and did so with success. 
Since then he has several times acted in his 
own plays, notably in " An Tinceir agus an 
tSidheog," in Mr. Moore's garden in Ely Place, 
acted to a chorus of howls from Mr. Moore's 
next door neighbour, with whom he had a 
desperate quarrel, and in "An Posadh," at 
the Rotunda. In the last he had to eat an 
egg on the stage. This he did in so natural 
a manner that a member of the audience 
commented on his good acting. Hyde re- 
plied that he had no dinner and that was 
the reason why he ate so well. 

Out upon these digressions ! The real 
point is that Hyde in the literary movement 
was to some extent helped by Yeats. Edward 

110 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Martyn's influence is more noticeable in the 
active part of the Gaelic movement, and need 
not be considered here. 

Standish O'Grady is himself an Irish 
historian and owes nothing of his work to 
the GaeUc Revival, though he helped the 
movement in his paper. The All Ireland 
Review, He, somewhat earlier in time, 
paved the way for a revival of interest in 
Ireland. Beyond comparison the greatest 
master of prose in Ireland to-day, his books. 
The Gates of the North, The Coming^ of Cucu- 
lain, Red Hugh's Captivity, The Flight of the 
Eagle, and The Bog of Stars, must have fired 
the imagination of many a youth who is now 
a keen student of Irish history and language. 

In iE's writing, on the other hand, there 
are clear traces of the influence of Hyde's 
work. Russell is not an Irish speaker, yet 
in part his work may be said to be the 
comparing and unifying of Irish mystical 
ideas with those of other nations. In doing 
this he is of necessity much indebted to the 
labours of Hyde, possibly sometimes as 
interpreted by Yeats, for Hyde is not a 
mystic. On second thoughts it is wrong ta 
say " as interpreted by Yeats," as the man 
who can week after week write imaginative 
articles, always high in tone and expression, 
on a foundation of co-operative banks does 
not need any interpreter between the hero- 
legends of Ireland and his own thoughts. 

Ill 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



It appears that the Irish Hterary move- 
ment owes much to Hyde's work for its basic 
ideas. It also owes much to him in that 
his movement for educating Irishmen in a 
knowledge of their own country has pre- 
pared an audience for the present generation 
of Irish writers. When this has been said, 
how far is Hyde identified with the Irish 
writers of to-day ? 

On the whole the answer seems to be that 
Hyde is not to be regarded as one of them. 
He stands quite apart. He does not base 
his reputation on his writings or his literary 
work ; he is associated by environment and 
friendship with many of the literary men, 
but he does not seem to belong to them. 
His writings are all more scholarly than 
literary. This does not mean that he is a 
dry, pedantic writer ; his writing is living 
and virile and shews that had he chosen to 
devote himself to writing he would have been 
among the leaders of the literary men. But 
Hyde has not written a single book of pure 
literature. All his writings are associated 
with the Gaelic Revival. He has published 
folk tales, but not as did O' Grady in Finn 
and his Companions or Yeats in Irish Fairy 
Tales, These are clearly the writings of 
men who hear a fine story and feel impelled 
to tell it in a beautiful form. Hyde's pub- 
lications are as clearly those of a man whose 
first object is to give the tale in its original 

112 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



and archaic form. When he publishes in 
Gaelic he gives word for word the traditional 
rendering of the story. If there are two or 
three renderings, he compares them from 
the point of view of their antiquity or style. 
If he writes a translation, the translation is 
intended to shew the spirit and, as far as 
possible, the form of the story in translation. 
The fact that Hyde is a fine writer enables 
him to do this with singular success, but this 
is accidental to the main object. 

Besides his Irish poetry, of which Hyde has 
published little, his only writings which are 
not directly concerned with the Gaelic move- 
ment are his plays. Even these were partly 
written to give some short plays for Irish- 
speaking actors. No one of them is more 
than one act, but they all show dramatic 
power. To non-Irish speakers the best known 
is " Tigh na mBoct," which has been 
very happily adapted into English as "The 
Workhouse Ward" by Lady Gregory. *'An 
Tinceir agus an tSidheog " (The Tinker and 
the Fairy), '*An Posadh " (The Marriage), 
and " The Lost Saint," also short plays, 
are still the best of their kind in Irish. 

Mention should be made of a play written 
during the height of his controversy with 
Trinity College Pleusgadh na Bul-goide (The 
Bursting of the Bubble). It is a satire on the 
attitude of the Trinity professors towards 
Gaelic, and is one of the few things Hyde has 

113 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



written which could be considered malicious. 
The different professors are brought in under 
thinly disguised names and have a terrible 
curse pronounced against them which makes 
them able to speak no language but Irish. 
It is the day a visit is expected from the 
Lord Lieutenant, and the dismay and misery 
of the professors, who find themselves talking 
a " vile jargon," is cleverly brought out. 
It also shows Hyde's capacity for amusing 
mischief. When he was reconciled to T.C.D. 
he had some regrets at having written this 
somewhat savage satire ; but it is so 
humorous that it has been produced several 
times, though the edge has somewhat worn 
off the satire as some of those satired 
are dead and others have modified their 
views. 

Even Mystery and Morality plays were 
never written by the earlier Irish writers. 
The nearest approach to drama found in Irish 
literature are dialogue poems such as that 
between St. Patrick and Ossian. These 
dialogues are very far from drama, and 
obviously were never intended to be acted in 
even the most rudimentary way. Hyde, 
however, wrote what is probably the first 
Mystery play in Gaelic, the " Drama Bhreithe 
Chriost " (Nativity Play). 

The " Nativity Play " was first acted at 
the Ursuline Convent, Sligo. It was after- 
wards translated into English by Lady 

114 



HYDE AS AN AUTHOR 



Gregory, and has since been acted on several 
occasions. 

Hyde's latest publication is a collection of 
tales in prose and verse called Legends of 
Saints and Sinners, It consists chiefly of 
stories of the early Irish saints translated 
into English by Hyde. 

But of all Hyde's work, that which is at 
once most attractive and interesting is his 
publication of two collections of poetry, 
the first " Love Songs of Connacht " and 
the second " Religious Songs of Connacht." 
Both consist of poems with critical notes in 
Irish, and on the opposite page an English 
metrical translation. They contain much that 
is beautiful, and no one who wishes to learn 
anything of Irish thought, religious or 
secular, should fail to read them. It is 
impossible to read them without seeing that 
they were both written and translated by 
poets. 



115 



CHAPTER VII 

RETIREMENT 

The last phase of Hyde's connection with 
the GaeHc League is one of which it is 
difficult to write. Of those who figured in 
it as protagonists not a few fell in the recent 
rising or were shot or imprisoned afterwards. 
But it is not of their actions in the sterner 
branches of politics that it is necessary to 
speak. It is only of their connection with 
the Gaelic League and through it with Hyde. 
As time went on the Gaelic League, like 
all human institutions, changed somewhat 
with the changing times. There can be no 
doubt that as it developed from the life- 
spring of a national movement into a society 
which aimed at helping and protecting that 
movement it tended to grow narrower. In 
its early stages the Gaelic League was the 
only body teaching Irish ; its classrooms 
were thronged with young and old, men 
and women, who learnt within the League 
a new ideal of nationality, new in the sense 
that it had not been brought into actual 
touch with their lives before ; old in the 
hearts and thoughts of Irish scholars from 
the Four Masters to Thomas Davis. 

116 



RETIREMENT 



But as tirat went on and the League won 
battle after battle, Irish began to take its 
place in the minds of all Irishmen. The 
child at school, even though Irish were not 
taught in his own school, could not avoid 
learning that such a language existed and 
was taught in others. If he were an " Inter- 
mediate " child, he knew that Irish was one 
of the subjects which helped to pass the 
Intermediate Examinations. Thus, when 
he came to an age when he could think for 
himself, the Gaelic League did not present 
itself to him as a fountain of inspired learning 
and a new interpretation of his own country, 
but simply as a body which encouraged the 
teaching and speaking of a language of whose 
existence he was already aware, and which, 
according to the goodness or badness of his 
teachers, he already possibly liked or dis- 
liked. 

So it is not to be wondered at that the 
Gaelic League should have changed some- 
what in the first twenty years of its existence. 
In the first flush of enthusiasm, with a large 
membership of all classes, it was an all- 
embracing body, with broad general views. 
As time went on many of those who joined 
at first dropped out ; it takes more than 
average persistence to learn a language after 
the age of sixteen. As the League became 
smaller, those who remained tended to be- 
come more intimately acquainted than is 

117 I 



RETIREMENT 



possible in a very large body, and therefore 
naturally to influence and be influenced by 
each other in many ways not purely lin- 
guistic. 

In any body of men, however inspired by 
an ideal there will always be found some 
who have their own small aims and who put 
themselves before the work in hand. Then 
there is the tendency for the members of 
any organisation to regard the organisation 
as of more importance than its professed 
object. Both these types were found in the 
Gaelic League. A number of men and women 
for various motives, personal and provincial, 
or merely from disappointed vanity, banded 
themselves into a left wing in opposition 
to Hyde and the responsible heads of the 
League. 

Though possessed of very little actual 
influence and with but a small following, 
this left wing made up for these deficiencies 
by a genius for intrigue. Intrigue by itself 
is sufficiently contemptible to be neglected, 
and Hyde did not trouble much about this 
insignificant group. He had around him in 
the League a devoted band of loyal workers. 
It may be invidious to mention names, but 
Mr. P. O'Daly, for years Secretary of the 
League, a man who devoted energies and 
talents to the reviving of Irish which had they 
been directed to self- advancement would 
have brought him much worldly success, 

118 



RETIREMENT 



was one of his staunchest supporters. P. 
H. Pearse, for some years editor of the 
Claidheamh Soluis, the weekly journal of 
the Gaelic League, was another. His talents 
as a writer of Irish are already known 
to all who are interested in Gaelic writing. 
They show a depth of feeling and sym- 
pathy rarely to be met. Until he opened 
a boarding school for Irish boys on purely 
Irish lines he remained editor of the 
Claidhearnhy and always consistently sup- 
ported Hyde's policy of no politics in the 
League His loss was much felt when 
he gave up the editorship, and inducements 
were held out to him to continue, but 
he preferred to work at his school, which 
gave promise of opening up a new field 
in education.* In the end his fiery zeal 
for all things Irish led him to a death 
which will cause his name to be longer 
remembered in Ireland than his many years 
of work for the Irish language. 

Another who should be mentioned was 
The O'Rahilly, who for years devoted his 
energies to the work of the Irish revival. 
He taught himself to speak Irish better 
than is usual for a non-native speaker. He 
was much liked by all who knew him, and 
had some degree of influence in the League. 
He also was carried by his convictions into 

* The School, " St. Enda's," is being carried on, and may 
yet show the possibilities of Pearse's educational theories. 

119 



RETIREMENT 



a position in which he seemed faced with 
certain death or dishonour. He chose the 
former. Pearse and O'Rahilly once again 
illustrate the tragedy of Irish history, which 
has seen time and again men who in a free 
country would be pre-eminent for their virtues 
and patriotism, brought to the scaffold. 

These last two men are mentioned, not 
because they were the only strong and 
influential supporters of Hyde, but because 
after events made it appear as though they 
were opposed to the non-political attitude 
of the League, though in fact they were not. 
It would be unjust to mention Hyde's 
supporters without referring to Miss O'Brien, 
for whose work the Gaelic League has good 
reason to be grateful, or Miss O'Farrelly, 
one of his colleagues in the League and in 
the National University ; but it is impossible 
to give a complete list, so it is better to go 
no further. 

Eoin MacNeill's attitude, however, must 
be specially mentioned. He also was against 
the introduction of politics into the Gaelic 
League, but for many years he had devoted 
himself to writing and study and had not 
come near the Coiste Gnotha or interfered 
in League affairs, though when Hyde con- 
sulted him on different matters he gave 
sound and sincere advice. 

Hyde's fault has always been that he is 
too kind-hearted. He seems to have a dislike 

120 



RETIREMENT 



almost amounting to weakness of hurting 
people or offending them. The small number 
of malcontents were intriguing hard to form 
a party against Hyde in the League. Hyde, 
however, despising the attempt, made no 
effort to crush it. That he could have 
crushed it with hardly an effort is evident. 
Pearse, MacNeill, and a host of other pro- 
minent Gaelic Leaguers would have been 
delighted to help in the work ; but instead 
of stamping them out, Hyde treated them 
with civility and their efforts with contempt. 
Besides the malcontents there were a number 
of Gaelic Leaguers who sincerely thought 
that the League should take up an openly 
political policy in favour of Sinn Fein, and 
who inclined towards the extreme left, owing 
to discontent with the rigidly non-political 
attitude of the executive. On a number of 
small matters opportunities arose of making 
it appear that the Gaelic League by being 
non-political was sacrificing the interests of 
the language. Questions bordering on politics 
were mooted, and every effort was made to 
shew that the proposed non-politicians were 
really timid or venal. The left wing gradually 
spread its influence into country districts. 
Any Leaguer with a real or imaginary 
grievance tended to join them and the 
number of the " left wing " increased at each 
successive Ard Fheis. The one thing they 
lacked was a leader who could command the 

121 



RETIREMENT 



smallest respect. The party had many clever 
men, but none who could be trusted as a 
leader, or with reputation enough to make a 
figurehead. 

The Ard Fheis consists of delegates from 
each branch of the League, and, as many of 
the branches in country districts cannot 
afford to send representatives to meetings 
in Dublin or Killarney or Dundalk, or 
wherever the Ard Fheis may be held, the 
practice arose for many of the poorer 
branches to appoint as delegates persons 
who lived in Dublin or some other central 
place and were easily able to attend the 
sittings. This developed to such an extent 
that sometimes one man came from a large 
district with several proxies in his pocket 
from the surrounding branches. It is easy 
to see that this practice, though innocent in 
itself, might easily lead to grave abuse. 

By degrees the extreme party gained the 
majority in the Ard Fheis, but it had not the 
nerve to unseat Hyde or to force its views 
on the League against his wishes. But 
Hyde felt his position grow more difficult as 
year succeeded year. " Let us come out on 
the side of Ireland " was the party cry of 
the extremists. " The side of Ireland " 
meant simply their own particular views, 
which, however good they may have been, 
were, beyond all question, only held by a very 
small minority of the population of Ireland. 

122 



RETIREMENT 



Motions to bring politics into the League 
were occasionally proposed at the Ard Fheis, 
but the extremists were afraid to press them, 
and they were either withdrawn or defeated. 
One of the reasons they were not pressed 
was that the country as a whole had its eyes 
fixed on the Home Rule Bill, which was going 
through its various stages in Parliament 
and the majority of Irishmen were deter- 
mined to let nothing interfere with the pro- 
gress of the Bill. Had the Sinn Fein party 
definitely attacked the Bill the country could 
have turned on them and wiped them out. 
In justice to the Sinn Feiners it should be 
said that they did refrain in a wonderful 
way from criticising the Irish party during 
the fight for the Bill, especially as there was 
plenty of room for honest criticism of the 
Bill itself. 

The formation of the Ulster Volunteer 
Force may be regarded as that which finally 
gave the Sinn Fein party the strength to 
push Hyde out of the League, thus to rid 
themselves of a president who had guided 
the League from its very foundation, and 
who had consistently and firmly refused 
to assume a political attitude. When 
the Unionists of Ulster, with Sir Edward 
Carson at their head, were openly preparing 
for armed resistance to Ireland and calling 
on Germany for help, it was difficult to 
restrain the rest of Ireland from arming 

123 



RETIREMENT 



against them. It became impossible when 
the British troops at the Curragh mutinied 
when ordered to go to Ulster. The Irish 
Volunteers were organized, with Eoin 
MacNeill as their president, and soon a for- 
midable volunteer army was formed by 
Nationalist Ireland. 

The birthplaces of the Volunteers are 
nearly as numerous as those of Homer, but 
the first big meeting was held in the Rotunda 
Rink in the late autumn of 1913. The left 
wing of the Gaelic League threw itself with 
enthusiasm into the Volunteer movement, 
but it must be understood that they did so 
as private individuals, not as Gaelic Leaguers. 
The official Nationalists were doubtful as to 
the wisdom of Volunteering. MacNeill, how- 
ever, threw his whole energies into the work 
and so did Pearse and O'Rahilly. They 
found themselves working with a body 
which was largely formed of the " left wing " 
of the Gaelic League. They had to form a 
provisional committee, and here they were 
again thrown upon the "left wing" for 
members. Volunteering thus made some 
strange bedfellows. Men who in the Gaelic 
League were the bitterest opponents found 
themselves thrown together in working the 
Volunteers. At last the members of the 
" left wing " had some prominent names 
to give them an air of responsibility. In 
this manner the Gaelic League, though 

124 



RETIREMENT 



not connected with the Volunteers in any- 
way, was influenced by them to a large 
extent. 

Redmond was opposed to volunteering, 
but when he saw the number and spirit of 
the Irish Volunteers it became clear that he 
would lose his influence with the country if 
he did not come into the movement. Accor- 
dingly a compromise was made between the 
Redmondites and what may loosely be called 
the Sinn Feiners, and a joint committee was 
formed for the Volunteers. Though the 
Volunteers' president was Eoin MacNeill, the 
committee, composed of many divergent 
elements, did not follow any one leader. The 
control was divided between MacNeill, Colonel 
Maurice Moore, and one or two others. 
Colonel Moore has political sense and great 
ability, and he was the one man on the 
combined volunteer committees who had 
any idea of what an army was, what it could 
do, and how to deal with large bodies of men. 

Hyde wisely kept out of the Volunteers. 
They may have had his sympathy, but he 
did not give them his name. On occasions he 
welcomed their existence as a manifestation 
of Irish spirit, but he took no active part in 
their formation. 

The volunteer movement spread like wild- 
fire. Rifles were landed at Howth at the 
end of July, 1914. On the very day they 
were landed large bodies of the Ulster 

125 



RETIREMENT 



Volunteer Force were marching unmolested 
through Belfast with rifles on their shoulders, 
yet an attempt was made by the military 
and police authorities to seize the rifles of the 
Irish Volunteers. This attempt was followed 
by the murder of a number of citizens, men 
and women, in the streets of Dublin by the 
King's Own Scottish Borderers. 

These murders inflamed Irish opinion to 
the last degree, and those who witnessed it 
will ever remember with amazement the 
change of opinion when the European War 
of 1914 broke out. 

At the outbreak of the War there were 
nearly 200,000 Irish Volunteers crying for 
vengeance for the victims of the Dublin 
murders. In a few days nearly the whole 
of Ireland was in favour of the side on which 
England was fighting in the European War. 

There were, however, a few men who did 
not join in this feeling. Of these P. H. 
Pearse was the most prominent. Whatever 
his feelings as to the merits or demerits of 
the war, he profoundly mistrusted the 
the British Government. MacNeill shared 
his view. The stupidity or malice of the 
English Government by degrees showed 
Irishmen that in the cause of small nation- 
alities Ireland was not to be considered, 
and Ireland gradually changed back to its 
normal condition of hatred to England. 

It is difficult not to write politically of 
126 



RETIREMENT 



events subsequent to August, 1914. At the 
Ard Fheis held in Killarney in 1914 Hyde 
was again elected president of the Gaelic 
League, but he found the post more than 
ever onerous. 

In October, 1914, the Redmondite and 
the Sinn Fein members of the committee 
of the Volunteers found that they could no 
longer work together, and the Volunteer 
movement was split. The whys and the 
wherefores of the split do not matter here. 
There probably were faults on both sides. 
In the resulting split the great majority 
of Volunteers followed the Redmondites, 
but the majority of the Gaelic League 
members of the Volunteers followed MacNeill. 
As far as volunteering is concerned the 
split had the effect of damping the ardour 
of the country, and from that moment 
numbers began to decline in both sections. 
As far as general politics are concerned, it 
threw the Sinn Fein party once more into 
active hostility to the Redmondites. Hyde 
was not in any way concerned in this ; he 
was above all political factions. This was 
clearly shewn when he was received in Cork 
by an armed guard consisting of both Irish 
and National Volunteers. 

The split was followed by a persecution 
of the Irish or MacNeill Volunteers by the 
Government. Several of their organisers 
were arrested or deported, and efforts were 

127 



RETIREMENT 



made to prevent their arming ; as time 
went on they became exasperated. 

In 1915 the Ard Fheis was held at Dundalk. 
At this Ard Fheis the question of pohtics 
and the Gaehc League had to be thrashed 
out again. At this Ard Fheis also the scandal 
of delegates nominated by one man reached 
its climax. It is said that one member of the 
Ard Fheis had no less than fifty delegates' 
cards to distribute. 

The fight came up on a resolution that to 
the objects of the Gaelic League should be 
added a clause saying that the Gaelic League 
was working for an '' Independent Ireland." 
This seemed a clear issue, and it is unknown 
whether the motion would have been carried 
or not ; many who were there think it would 
have been lost. The issue was obscured by 
substituting the vague word " free " for the 
definite word " Independent." In this form 
the motion was carried, and next day Hyde 
resigned. 

His position with the new rule in force 
would have been impossible. The word 
" free " is absolutely incapable of inter- 
pretation between two bodies, one wishing 
to be political, the other non-political. 

Hyde's resignation, when it came, was a 
great blow to the Gaelic League. MacNeill, 
the Vice-President, did not want to oppose 
Hyde in any way, and would not become 
President. Then it was decided not to elect 

128 



RETIREMENT 



a President for some time, and to try to 
induce Hyde to come back to the League. 
In 1916, after the rising, MacNeill was elected 
President. As he was in prison at the time 
of his election, in spite of the fact that he 
had tried to stop the rising, and is still in 
prison, it is impossible to say whether or 
not he wished for the Presidency.* From his 
former conduct it is likely that he did not 
want to appear as supplanting his old friend 
Hyde. 

It must have been a great sorrow to Hyde 
to resign from the League, of which he had 
been President for twenty-two years and to 
which he had devoted his life's work. On 
the other hand, he cannot but have felt relief 
at being freed from the unending work it 
entailed. He has the satisfaction of looking 
back on his life's work and seeing that he has 
done more than any one other man to alter 
Irish life and Irish ideals. He found a 
country apathetic to everything but pure 
politics ; he has brought it to a pitch of 
intellectual activity undreamed of twenty 
years ago. The movement which he started 
has had a very great measure of success. 
The Irish language, which was despised and 
dying, is now regarded as a precious treasure 
by those who have it, and is eagerly sought 

* MacNeill has since been released (June 16th, 1917), but 
this book must go to press before he will have time to make a 
public statement on the point. 

129 



RETIREMENT 



after by thousands who have not. There is no 
pubhc man in Ireland on the Nationahst side 
who dares to speak disrespectfully of the 
Irish tongue. As Miss Mitchell, in her book 
on Mr. George Moore, says of Hyde, he is — 

" The man who drew out of the gutter where we 
ourselves had flung her the language of our country, 
and set a crown upon her ; who by sheer force of per- 
sonaUty created the movement in Ireland for the 
revival of Gaelic, blowing with a hot enthusiasm on that 
djdng spark of nationalism and recalling it to life. 
Those who know The Love Songs of Connacht will not 
need to be told that here was the soul of a poet. The 
movement he blasted out of the rock of Anglo -Irish 
prejudice is his epic. . . . We know what Ireland owes 
to Hyde's fiery spirit, his immense courage, his scholar- 
ship, his genius for organisation, his sincerity, his 
eloquence, and the kindness of his heart." 

The work of Douglas Hyde will live after 
him. It is not now possible that Irish can die, 
as but for him it would most assuredly have 
died. Even should it become extinct as a 
spoken language, reams of Irish literature 
have been preserved which but for Hyde 
would have perished. 

But the language as a living tongue will not 
die. There is still in Ireland enough of 
patriotism and national pride to keep it alive. 
Some there are who fear that an Irish Govern- 
ment, should such come soon, will not cherish 
and care for the language, that it will devote 
itself to the material interests of the country 
and neglect her intellectual welfare. This is 

130 



RETIREMENT. 



not really likely, and even if it were so, the ma- 
terial prosperity of the country will never kill 
her intellectual life. It was said that land pur- 
chase would kill Home Rule, but such is not 
the case. The peasant proprietor, proud in 
the possession of his land, is prouder than 
ever of his country. The movement for Irish 
self-government is as strong as ever it was, 
and everything that makes Irishmen more 
independent in their material life makes them 
wish the more for independence in their 
intellectual life. What was once the most 
cultured countr\^ in Western Europe must 
have some seeds of her ancient culture left 
which, like seeds taken from an Egyptian 
tomb, will after a thousand years of barren- 
ness quicken again with the pulse of life 
when they feel the clasp of congenial soil. 

Most assuredly the more independent in 
spirit Irishmen become, the more they will 
value their independence ; and as they see 
that clothing their thoughts in the tongue 
of their conquerors binds them more truly 
to those conquerors than would chains of 
steel, they will throw off the yoke and, with 
their own language to clothe their own 
ideas, reawaken the spiritual life of Ireland 
until she is once again a leader of world 
thought. When that day comes men in 
Ireland and out of it will realise more 
strongly than is now possible Hyde's service 
to his country and to mankind. 

131 



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