An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Sruth > Volume 1 > No. 33, 27 June 1968

Six
Sruth, Di-ardaoin, 27 latha de’n Og-mhios 1968
IRISH FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
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Part 1
The rising of 1916 has not
provoked the number of
books in Irish that one might
have expected. There are
many reasons for this — not
least of them the difficulty of
publishing a major work in
Irish earlier this century. An¬
other important factor was, of
course, the unfortunate Civil
War of 1922-23 which cost
by PADRAIG
the revolutionary idealism
much of its fervour and has
made many veterans rather
reticent about the period. One
result of that is tnat by far
too few biographies, autobiog¬
raphies or memoirs have been
published.
The Breton Le Roux wrote
two biographies, one of
Pearse (L’lrlande Militante,
La Vie de Patrice Pearse,
Rennes, 1932), the other —
and to my mind the better
one—of Clarke (Tom Clarke
and the Irish Freedom Move¬
ment, 1936). There is no bio¬
graphy of Clarke in Irish and
the only one of Pearse, done
thirty years ago by Seamas
O’ Searcaigh (Padraig Mac-
Piarais, Oifig an tSolathair,
1938), is not up to Le Roux’s
standard. While it is good on
some aspects of Pearse and
the Gaelic movement, the
chronology is unsatisfactory,
and it fails as a study in
depth.
Another biography of an
old date is S.S. O’ Ceallaigh’s
Cathal Brugha published by
Gill in 1942. The book is an
illustrative example of the bad
effect of the Civil War on
writing about the period since
the author, himself an impor¬
tant figure in the history of
those days, is at all times too
conscious of the fight and
carries its tensions and hos¬
tilities on to the printed page,
thus making his study seem
at once an apologia as well as
a political tract. The sufferer
is Brugha, for, while some of
his very interesting early writ¬
ings and speeches in JrKh are
given, there is no real bio¬
graphy in the otrict sense of
the early years.
More modern works with a
more scholarly approach read
much better and are, in fact,
better books and better his¬
tories than these early two.
Tames Connolly, the Edin¬
burgh-born founder of the
Irish Socialist Republican
Party, editor of The Worker’s
Republic and leader of the
Irish Citizen Army from the
outbreak of the 1914-18 war,
has been the subject of one
useful biography, Tart na
Cora, by Proinsias Mac an
Bheatha published a few
years ago by FNT. It takes
issue on two major points
with what is in many ways a
better biography, The Life
and Times of James Con-
noly, by C. Desmond Greaves
(Lawrence and Wishart, Lon¬
don, 1961).
Still on biographies, there
are two others that should be
mentioned because they are
of greatest present interest.
Both are by Sean O Luing, of
the Dail Eireann translation
staff.
Griffith is one of the key
0’ SNODAIGH
figures to be evaluated in any
attempt at understanding
both modern Ireland and tne
drive of the early ‘ £>inn Fein ’
witn its then new doctrines
of self-reliance and absten¬
tion from the British Parlia¬
ment, its stress on self con-
iidence, support from home
industries and its pride in
liish achievements, all of
wnich are thoroughly docu¬
mented by O Luing. The ebb
trom about 1910 onwards,
after the failure of their first
Parliamentary contest, the
loss or much of the 1RB sup¬
port they had previously en¬
joyed and tne failure of the
i>inn Lein Dail are similarly
dealt with.
‘Sinn Fein’ was used by the
authorities as a derogatory
term; their low estimate of
the early movement as well
as the inaccuracy of their
information is marked by
their designation of the Irish
Volunteers, from September
of 1914 onwards, as ‘ Sinn
Fein Volunteers.’ The words
in this usage were pejorative,
but, the label had caught the
public imagination, and it was
the old Sinn Fein that was
eventually adapted by the
new revolutionaries as they
began to organise their poli¬
tical arm in 1917. It was un¬
der this label that their doc¬
trine and beliefs received the
spectacular assent of the Irish
people in the 1918 general
election, when 73 of the 105
seats were won by Sinn Fein
candidates.
Griffith is, therefore, a key
figure in our understanding of
this formative period of Irish
history, and in O Luing we
have easily his best bio¬
grapher, whose attraction to
Griffith leads perhaps to a
slight bias in his handling of
the civil war period. By and
large this bias is that of most
biographers fascinated by
their subject, and is a far cry
from the passion of Sceilg’s
Life of Cathal Brugha noted
above.
Another biography by O
Luing is John Devoy, pub¬
lished by Clo Morainn in
1961. Devoy was implacable,
inflexible and, to many, im¬
possible to work with. Too
long a revolutionary, he be-
of his own organisation, the
iRB, or Clan na Gael as the
later Fenians in the United
States were generally called.
Again, as with most nations
emerging from Impeiialism,
the revolutionary leaders of¬
ten fell out over means and
ends, and Devoy was no ex¬
ception. But, if again the
Civil War is a cloud, in an
article written at the end of
1926 he returns to the well
springs of the revival when
he says:
“ But language, neverthe¬
less, is a badge of Nationa¬
lity. It embodies the ideals
and traditions of the people
and their poetry and litera¬
ture are enshrined in it. it
is the tie that binds together
separated sections of the race
and makes them realise that
they are one people ...
“ Had the Fenian move¬
ment succeeded ” (he con¬
tinues) “ it would have
taken prompt and effective
measures to restore the lan¬
guage, contrary to the pre¬
vailing opinion among earlier
Gaelic leaguers, who new
nothing of the facts.”
This was a characteristic
sally but he was not blind to
tne importance of the Gae¬
lic League:
“ The spirit developed and
fostered by the Gaelic League
found natural vent in work
for Ireland along every line
of National effort, and
changed the country from be¬
ing a mere province of the
British Empire to a living
vigorous National Entity.
John Deyoy is an interest¬
ing book, and the last sec¬
tions cited from it lead on
to an important biography,
An Duinnineach, by Proin¬
sias O Conluain and Donncha
O Ceileachair, published in
1958 by Sairseal agus Dill.
‘ Funnyman Dinseen,’ as
Myles na gCopaleen used to
call him, was one of the most
interesting figures in the lan¬
guage revival movement. His
dictionary remains an essen¬
tial aid for reader, student
and teacher.
More recent publications
are Caitlin Bean Ui Tallam-
hain’s Ros Fiain Lies an Daill
(Clodhanna Teo., 1967) a
good short life of Countess
Markievicz which does not,
however, measure up to the
full length studies by Sean
O Faolain (Constance Mar¬
kievicz, Cape, London, 1934)
and Anne Marreco (The
Rebel Countess, Weidenfeld
and Nicholson, London 1967);
An tAthair Seosamh O
Muirthile’s Ireitha Thomais
Aghas (Clodhanna Teo. 1967),
the first study at any length
of the life and work of Ashe
who died as a result of forced
feeding in 1917; and my short
pamphlet on The O’Rahilly
(Ua Rathqhaille, Foillseachain
Poblachtacha, 1967).
(To be continued)
STAMDARD GAELIC
J. Harvey Macpherson’s art¬
icle, “ Standard Gaelic and
Phonetic Spelling,” contains
one statement with which I
whole-heartedly agree: “Gaelic
is worth learning.” It can also
be a pleasure to learn.
But while it is certainly true
that there are many languages
more difficult for English
speakers to learn than Gaelic
by Nancy C. Dorian
(almost any language of Asia,
Africa, or the South Seas, tor
example), I think it is soft-
pedaling the situation unaccept¬
ably to make Gaelic sound like
child’s play. This only leads to
frustration for people who start
in with high enthusiasm and
meet obstacles for which they
aren’t prepared.
By no means all of the
obstacles come from the lan¬
guage itself, but the cause of
perpetuating Gaelic is ill ser¬
ved by concealing the fact that
there are certain purely lin¬
guistic difficulties for the
learner. I speak here as a de¬
scriptive linguist with experi¬
ence of a dozen or so modern
languages other than Gaelic,
and as a field worker preparing
a full length study of one par-
ticul r Gaelic dialect; also,
finally, as an (American) learner
of Gaelic.
Let’s get the purely linguis¬
tic problem out of the way first.
It arises from the fact that the
bulk of the learners are native
speakers of English or some
other non-Celtic language. This
means that a language in which
a great deal of gramatical in¬
formation is conveyed by
changes at the beginnings of
words, rather than (or as well
as) at their ends, will be some¬
thing very new to them. The
initial consonant mutations
alone will be a stumbling block
to most learners, then; and the
fart that there is an elaborate
system of noun-and-adjertive
agreement, involving both
initial consonant changes and
changes in the endings of words,
will mean quite a mental read¬
justment. (To be fair, for
people who like a little spice in
life this will also prabably be
the most interesting aspect of
Gaelic, since it’s the most diff¬
erent from English.)
Quite aside from the difficul¬
ties of the language itself, the
books available for use in teach¬
ing are not particularly good.
The old-style books, still widely
used, give a terrific concentra¬
tion of very dry and ill-presen¬
ted grammar. The new style
books give a lot of lively
conversational material, but are
skimpy when it comes to ex¬
plaining the principles of the
basic structure of the language.
Then there’s the problem of
the teachers and their training.
Many of the teachers, in night
classes for example, are simply
native speakers who are pressed
into service and agree to try
teaching Gaelic out of loyalty
to the language and its culture.
Often, by the sheer enthusiasm
they bring to the job, they have
a good deal of success. But :
equally often they are unable, as j
native speakers, to see where i
the problems of the learner he, j
or to extract and emphasise the j
basic principles which underlie I
the expressions they are trying :
to convey to their students. The i
professional Gaelic teachers, |
those who have passed through ^
the universities with Celtic as a it
subject, are well trained in the 1
history of Gaelic, perhaps, and j
in Celtic literature. But how ;
many of them have been well |
trained in phonetics, so that ■
they can explain to an English j
speaker just how ihe vel'arized
n of Gaelic [Anna differs from j
the n of English Anna} And jj
how many are trained in con- !
trasting the structure of one |
language with that of another, 1
so that they can make clear and I
simple statements about, say 9
word order in Gaelic as opposed ]
to word order in English? (One 1
often hears misleading state- |
ments in this connection, e.g., I
“Gaelic has verb-subject-object, 1
where English has subject-verb- I
object”—a statement which J
actually applies only to certain 9
main clauses in the two lan- J
guages.)
I he othography, for all Mr J
Macpherson’s defence, is diffi- 1
cult for the average learner, J
who hasn’t the training to look |
for the regular correspondences J
between sound and symbols. 1
The correspondences are there, a
and Mr Macpherson is quite J
right in saying that Gaelic |
spelling is more reasonable than |
English spelling in this respect, j
But the fact remains that not 1
enough is done by the hand- |
books or the teachers to nelp I
learners see the relationships |
between spelling and pronunci- |
ations. After all, the learners J
are nearly always starting with 1
a deeply ingrained English- f
language background, and they J
will inevitably tend to give |
English values to the combina- |
tions of letters they see in
front of them.
Finally, Gaelic is harder to 1
learn than most Western Euro- 1
pean languages because inten- 1
sive exposure to it is harder to I
come by. You can’t go to |
Gaelic films, and there’s pre- J
cious little Gaelic to listen to |
on the wireless; Gaelic publica- I
tions are still too rare. Gaelic |
speakers are all bilingual and :j
quite naturally impatient about ;i]
speaking Gaelic to you when ij
the conversation would go much |
faster and deeper in English. ||
Having said all this, I would II
not like to leave the impression ||
that I think the situation is |
hopeless. Under the present |j
circumstances it’s certainly not J
good, from the learner’s point |J
of view, but there are possibill- ||
ties.
(To be continued)
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