NOTES.
Note I.
On the reasons for keeping alive the Irish Language.
It seems ridiculous that we cannot publish a book in our own language without introducing more or less of English into it. I had determined to publish these stories just as they are, without any commentary, such seeming to me unnecessary; but certain friends pointed out to me the advisability of adding some explanatory observations on the text, which should prove useful to any who may use this book to learn Irish.
I accordingly write—reluctantly enough—this and the following notes in English, seeing that some learners may find them useful; and as people are always asking: “What is the good of keeping up the language at all?” I determined that this first note should be a short answer to that question.
Perhaps I cannot do better than reproduce here part of an answer already published elsewhere, when those who wished to preserve our language were accused by an Irish magazine of aimlessness and foolishness. I then said: “If we allow our living language to die out, it is almost certain that we condemn our literary records to remain in ob-
