| No. 33.—Vol. IV.] | DUBLIN, 1889. | [Price Sevenpence. |
THE GAELIC JOURNAL.
TO THE NATIONAL TEACHERS OF IRELAND.
Brother-Teachers,—There is before me a letter, dated Killarney, 12th February, 1872, which says:—“When I look at the date of your note I feel I have trespassed too much on your patience, by delaying my reply so long. . . . With regard to the resolution to which you refer, I see the difficulty of the matter, and I seconded the resolution, not because I had any expectation that the Board of Education would encour- age the teaching of the old tongue, but to show my sympathy with the cause, and to induce those teachers who have a know- ledge of the language, to promote the study of it, not for pay, but for the love they should bear to the dear old land, its faith, language, etc.” The letter is signed “Peter Fleming,” and I hope the National Teachers need not be told who he was, and what a part he took in the promotion of their own interests. The resolution referred to was proposed at the Teachers’ Congress a few weeks previously by a Mr. O’Connor, and seconded by Mr. Fleming, and passed unanimously. By it the National Teachers pledged themselves to promote the study of their native tongue by every means in their power. On reading the proceedings in Congress, I at once wrote to Mr. Fleming, and, I believe, asked him what practical steps could we take to give effect to the Teachers’ resolution; and the ex- tracts given above are taken from his reply. At that time the language was apparently dead; and the only mention made of it was in what might be called the elegies of orators here and there through the country. These orators, like a bean-cAoirice over the remains of some one just departed, spoke in a “heroic rage” of the oppression and tyranny of the foreigner, who had ruined the “tongue of the Saints and the Sages,” and soforth; but they would not learn this tongue themselves, nor give any practi- cal assistance to keep it alive. At any rate the correspondence with Mr. Fleming was not only continued, but we took counsel with others of our fellow-teachers, and two years later, in the Congress of 1874, things were so improved that a memorial read at the Congress was unanimously adopted by the delegates. This memorial prayed the Com- missioners of National Education to en- courage the cultivation of the language of the country, and soforth. It was I wrote the memorial, and arranged with the late Mayor of Kilkenny and Mr. Fleming to propose and second the resolution adopting it. Will any teacher who has kept the Teachers’ Journals of the date, copy the memorial for us to insert in the Gaelic Journal?
Our next business was to get the me- morial signed by managers of National schools and other influential persons, and in a short time five of the bishops of Munster and about eighty or ninety managers had signed it. AU this was done by National Teachers, and besides those already named, Mr. Lynch of Cahir and Mr. Payne of Ban- don gave the greatest assistance. Arrange- ments were in progress to have the memorial signed throughout the other provinces, when
