The metrical systems of the old bardic schools were intricate and elaborate and, tech nically, had reached an advanced stage of de velopment at an early period. The underlying principle was not alliteration as in Anglo-Saxon and other Teutonic verse; or'quantity as in the metres•of the Classic tongues, but a consonan tal rime, based on a division of the consonants into groups, any consonant in a particular group riming with any other consonant in that group. The syllables, too, were reckoned, but without regard to stress. It was an intricate system, and ease of composition according to it could be acquired only after years of arduous labor over its technicalities. But with the breaking up of the bardic schools in the 17th century came the introduction of a new verse form in whiCh accent and not syllable was the unit of measure and in which vowel rime took the place of consonantal. The change was al most instantaneous, and with the introduction of the simpler form the whole nation seemed to burst into song. The new method was elab orated and developed until the rime affected every accented syllable' in the line, with a re sult that was wonderfully melodious. "The Gaelic poetry of the last two centuries both in Ireland and in the Highlands," says Hyde 'Literary History of Ireland,' 1903, p. 542, "is the most sensuous attempt to con vey music in words, ever made by man. It is absolutely impossible to convey the luscious ness of sound, richness of rhythm, and per fection of harmony, in another language. Scores upon scores of new and brilliant metres made their appearance." Eighteenth Century and After.--*The 18th century was a period of persecution, and with the means of education and the• opportunities for bettering themselves denied them, the Irish people found an outlet for their feeling only in song. The number of poets produced is al most countless, but a few names, such as David O'Bruadar, John O'Neaghtan, Torlogh O'Caro lan, Tadhg Gaoloch O'Sullivan, Donough Mac Conmara and Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre, are worthy of special mention. But with the 18th century the history of Gaelic literature practi cally ends. Through the early years of the 19th century the struggle to preserve it was kept up, but the famine, coming as the climax of a long series of calamities, put an end to it. Such men as O'Curry, O'Donovan, Petrie and Todd; such societies as the Ossianic Society and the Society for the Preservation of the Gaelic Language, labored for the salvation of the tongue, but it was not until the great popu lar movement of the last two decades of the century that any real progress was made. The
Gaelic League during that time stirred the nation to a sense of its impending loss and as a result the study of the language has been taken up with enthusiasm not only in Ireland but in the United States, South America and Australia. Although this movement, which is purely popular and patriotic and has for its object the restoration of the language and the literature, is distinct from the scholarly interest shown by such scholars as Zeuss, Zimmer, Kuno Meyer, Windisch, D'Arbois de Jubain vine, Whitley Stokes, yet its indebtedness to the researches of these investigators is unquestion able. That indebtedness is greater, however, to men like Dr. Douglas Hyde, Dr. Siger son, Rev. Eugene O'Growney, Rev. P. J. Dineen, Rev. Peter O'Leary, Lady Gregory and others, who couple with thorough scholar ship an enthusiasm that makes their efforts doubly' effective. Dr. Hyde is a poet of un doubted gifts, with a command of Gaelic and the intricacies of its metres as sure as is his command of English, and a prose writer of equal fluency in both languages. Father O'Growney's series of textbooks is the standard course in most of the classes, and the others have contributed generously to the product of the new school. See also CELTIC LANGUAGES.
Hyde, Literary History of Ireland' (3d ed., New York and London 1903) ; Songs of Connaught) (London 1895) ; 'Religious Songs of Connaught' (Dub lin 1906); Joyce, (Ancient Social Ireland' (2 vols., London and New York 1903); Stokes and Strachan, (Thesaurus Palaonibernicus); Siger son, of the GM and Gall' (London 1907, 2d ecr) ; Stokes, Lives' and (Three Middle Irish Thurneysen, irische Verslehren) i Stokes and Windisch, (Irische Texte' (Leipzig lx1-1900) ; Anwyl, 'Celtic Religion in pre-Christian Times' (1906) ; Strachan, Paradigms and Selections from Old-Irish Glosses' (1909); O'Grady, Gadelica' (London 1892). Numerous texts can be found in the Revue Celtique, the Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie, the Anec dota Oxoniensia, and the Irish Text Society, the Irish Archeological Society, the Celtic So ciety and the Royal Irish Academy.