THE INFLUENCE OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 72

THE INFLUENCE OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE

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Irish music, the painting of the tender Irish landscapes, and the all but unknown art of drawing a genuine Irish peasant, the rehabilitation of a national drama, the amassing of priceless Irish historical material now being consumed by the moths in English libraries or foreign monasteries; the making the evening valleys ring again with the innocent glee of the Kerry dance, and the plains of Tara with the shouts of the ancient festivals and pastimes. Is it even too bold a vision of far-off years to dream of a time when, passing the stormy Moyle once more into the Scottish isles and glens, the children of the Irish Gael might draw closer even than recent events have drawn those bonds of blood and clanship which once bound us to our Scottish soldier colonists who conquered with Angus and knelt to Columbkille?—nay, spreading still further a-field and a-main, discover new nations of blood relations in our near cousins of the Isle of Man and our farther cousins among the misty mountains of Wales and the old-world cities of Brittany; and combining their traditions, their aspirations, and genius with the evergrowing Celtic element with which we have penetrated the New World, confront the Giant Despair which is preying upon this aged century, body and soul, with a worldwide Celtic league, with faith and wit as spiritual, with valour as dauntless, and sensibilities as unspoilt as when all the world and love were young?

I do not ask my countrymen to withdraw their eyes from nearer and more vital objects to fix them on these distant visions; but I do respectfully ask them to dismiss the ignoble thought that the ambition to preserve our national language belongs to the region of crotchets or of boredom, and to recognise that among all the forms of national efflorescence which an Irish Parliament will bring … continue reading »

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