Blair Collection > Gaelic journal > Volume 1, number 1

THE GAELIC JOURNAL.
99
ceased to watch \vith intense satisfaction the
steady growth of your influence, and the
perfection of that organization which in re-
cent )-ears won so many concessions from
unwilling masters. Two of the most use-
ful members of the council of the Gaelic
Union belong to your ranks ; your verj'
efficient Central Secretarj^ and that genial
veteran Irishman, to whom belongs the
proud privilege of having written the first
article in Irish for the first page of the first
number of the Gaelic Journal. Need I men-
tion his name? — John Fleming (loud and
prolonged cheers). I am quite aware you
have many things to think of besides sup-
porting to an inconvenient extent the
Gaelic Union in its efforts to preserve the
Irish language ; but I am also aware that if
I needed support for a non-paying (pecu-
niarily) movement of any kind, I should
first ask assistance irom the busy and hard-
working. Judging by results, }-ou are a very
busy and hardworking and successful bodj',
and the Gaelic Union therefore asks you and
people like you, and nobody else, to lend a
hand in this work nozv in the present uni-
versal upheaval of our race in favour of the
language of our fathers. From the universi-
ties of Germany and from the marts of
Chicago; from the plains of La Plata and
from the moors of Inverness ; from every
quarter of the globe from which a scholar or
Celt could have replied to our recent pro-
posals, the kindliest welcome and warmest
greetings have reached us. When deep-
thinking, indefatigable Germany takes up
the Irish language warmly, what will well-
informed people of taste and culture think of
the educators of the Irish Nation, if these
educators neglectthe language of their coun-
try, and, above all, what will be thought
of those teachers who neglect it where it is
yet spoken, while the poetry of its words
and idioms is being wafted past them by
ev'ery breeze, and while the names of every
hill and valley and mountain and glen are
teeming with inexhaustible supplies of food
for the imagination and the intellect of the
student and the philosopher? Gentlemen,
about si.x years ago a few friends of the Irish
language went through the first act of a
great drama by forming in Dublin a Societ)-
for the Preservation of the Irish Language.
The second act consisted in forming, about
two years ago, the Gaelic Union ; and the
third act produces the Gaelic Journal. Dur-
ing the progress of the fourth act will you,
fellow-teachers, be spectators or actors ?
— actors I have no doubt. You have had a
large measure of success in your under-
taking. I heartily wish you a continuance
of such blessings. And being, as far as I
can see, on the high road to securing all that
you can reasonably expect, I ask you, after
you shall have finished your own business,
to consider the terms of the resolution which
I fear I have been too long speaking to, and
then the condition of that most precious in-
heritance of ours — our mother-tongue, and to
show bj' your actions that the Irish lan-
guage is not dead but sleeping, and that out
of that sleep she will arise at the call of the
Irish Teachers (applause).
The Lord Mayor — I think the resolution
which you are about to adopt in regard to
the preservation of the Celtic language and
its cultivation, is one deserving of the
strongest support (hear, hear).
The resolution was then passed by accla-
mation.
At the Congress Dinner the same even-
ing, the following remarks were made on
this subject : —
The President — My Lord Mayor, I have
another toast on the list, namely, "National
Education and the School Managers." We
have been favoured here this evening by the
presence of some of the managers, and have
not been so favoured before. I hope this
toast with which I couple the names of
the Rev. Father Flynn and Rev. Father
Nolan, will be as warmly received as it can
possibly be (applause).
The Rev. John Nolan, Hon. Secretary of
the Gaelic Union, said — That part of the
toast which refers to the management of
National Schools has been stated so well
and ably and satisfactorily by the last
speaker. Rev. Father Flynn, that I need not
deal with it ; but the question of National
Education remains, and I wish its treatment
had been left to better hands than mine. I
have given a very considerable amount of
time and labour to work up this question — to