GAELIC LEAGUE, The. From the pass ing of the Statute of Kilkenny in 1367, the policy of the English governors of Ireland was to discourage the use of the Irish language, and even to root it out entirely; and from time to time other laws, with various pains and penalties attached in case of non-observance, were enacted with the same end in view. It was a vain attempt. The people clung with singular tenacity to their own language, and many of the English settlers adopted it, so that in the early part of the 19th century, out of a total population of 7,000,000, at least 4,000,000 spoke Irish as their native tongue. A more insidious method than penal legislation was then adopted. Under the primary school system, conducted by the Board of National Education established in 1831, the Irish language was both banished from the curriculum and forbidden as a medium of instruction, the motive of course being to establish, in process of time, the universal use of the English language in Ireland, to the exclusion of the native speech. This method of killing a language by degrees was so effective that, before the end of the century, Irish had practically disappeared from Ireland as a written language, and survived as a spoken one only in a few districts of the south, and northwest. The figures show ing its decline in 66 years are startling: a drop from 4,000,000 Irish speakers in 1835 to 1,524, 286 in 1851, and to 641,142 in 1901, tells its own tale. Worse perhaps than the actual de dine here disclosed was the neglectful or even contemptuous attitude adopted toward their own language by great numbers of the Irish people.
In the meantime, however, the great Celtic Renaissance (q.v.), which had accomplished so much in other fields, had begun to produce its effects on the moribund Irish language— slowly, indeed, at first, for the political and social unrest in Ireland from 1878 onward was an insuperable barrier to the widespread suc cess of any mere linguistic or literary move ment. The Society for the Preservation of the Irish language and the Gaelic Union did some thing to stem the tide; but the more ardent spirits of the latter body, dissatisfied with the progress made, and believing that, in order to achieve their purpose, a great popular move ment was necessary, decided to .establish an other organization. To this new body was given the title of THE GAELIC LEAGUE (Cu.. mann na Gaedhilge).
The Gaelic League was founded on 31 July 1893, at 9 Lower O'Connell street, Dublin. The number present on that historic occasion was small, seven perhaps or nine at most; but many of them were young men of great force of character and with a clear concept of what they intended to do and of the difficulties which they had to face. At the outset the three recog
nized leaders were John MacNeill, Rev. Eugene O'Growney, and Douglas Hyde. By using the native language as their basis of operation, they contemplated the deanglicization of Ire land and the restoration of that distinctive Irish culture which they regarded as then well nigh lost: the re-establishment, in fact, of what came afterward to be called an Irish Ire land. The program of the League, as an nounced, was: 1. The preservation of Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use as a spoken tongue.
2. The study and publication of existing Irish literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish.
Although conceived on strictly non-political and non-sectarian lines, the League made hut slow progress at first. It had to encounter suspicion and even secret and open opposition, it had to endure the mock and the jeer of the scoffer and the scorner, and, worst of all, it had before it the herculean task of overcoming the apathy of the great majority of the people. The heads of the League, however, set about their work with courage and high hope and with a dogged perseverance, which in the long run produced results. Taking over and con tinuing the monthly Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge (The Gaelic Journal), which had been begun in 1882 by the Gaelic Union, the Gaelic League also started a weekly of its own, Fainne an Lae (The Ring of Day, The Dawn), which was subsequently replaced by Claidhearnh Soluis (The Sword of Light). In time, its propaganda attracted men of all classes and all creeds, various daily and weekly newspapers helped on the movement, and a national sentiment was created. By 1905 thousands of books and pamphlets printed entirely in Irish were pro duced annually, and, exclusive of prayer manu als and other religious works, more books were published in Dublin in Irish than in English. In 1908, 5,814 intermediate, or secondary school, students presented themselves for ex amination in Irish. By 1906 close on 100,000 children were learning the Irish language in the national, or primary, schools, and the ban on the teaching of Irish history in those institutions had been lifted. A new literature in modern Irish was also in process of formation, and an Irish Texts Society was busily engaged in rescuing from oblivion the ancient Irish clas sics and the works of the 17th and 18th cen tury Irish poets, like Geoffrey O'Donoghue, David O'Bruadair, Egan O'Rahilly, John Claragh MacDonnell, and Owen Roe O'Sullivan.