ere recorded as speaking Irish
alone, while the number of those who knew anything of the language was
only about 13 per cent. of the population. Whether this change was a
blessing or a bane to Ireland is a subject which is outside the range of
this discussion, but whatever it was the Irish people themselves had a
full share of responsibility for the result. With scarcely an exception,
the abandonment of Irish was approved by the clergy, the political
leaders, and the masses of the people "The killing of the language,"
writes Dr. Douglas Hyde, "took place under the eye of O'Connell and the
Parliamentarians, and, of course, under the eye and with the sanction of
the Catholic priesthood and prelates ... From a complexity of causes
which I am afraid to explain, the men who for the last sixty years have
had the ear of the Irish race have persistently shown the cold shoulder
to everything that was Irish and racial."[*] Their attitude is easily
understood. Irish had long ceased to be used for literary purposes. No
Irish newspapers, no Irish books were printed; English was regarded as
the only available key to the world of modern culture, and Ireland
became an English-speaking country without a struggle and almost without
a regret.

[Footnote *: "Beside the Fire," pp. xliii, xliv (1890). Dr. Hyde was the
first president of the Gaelic League, and is now Professor of Modern
Irish in the National University.]

In the early 'nineties, however, a popular movement took shape for the
rescue of what still remained of the language and for its restoration,
so far as was practically possible. Classes for the study of Irish were
formed all over the country, folk-tales were collected, MSS. of
half-forgotten poets were disinterred and edited, the first scholarly
and adequate dictionary of modern Irish was compiled,[*] and plays,
poems, and stories began to be written in the re-discovered language.
These activities were mostly organised and directed by the Gaelic
League, a body founded in 1893. One can easily imagine how a Prussian
Government would have dealt with such a movement, especially as a
certain disaffected element in the country immediately began to make use
of it for its own ends. The British Government looked on not only calmly
but approvingly. When a general demand arose for the effective teaching
of Irish in the elementary schools--though at this time only about
21,000 old people were recorded in the census as ignorant of Engli