Conradh na Gaeilge

"On July 31, 1893, the Gaelic League was founded in a small room in Dublin by Douglas Hyde, Eoin MacNeill, Father Eugene O'Growney, and four others" (Costigan 259) and so began a movement to encourage the traditional Irish language. The Gaelic League "also popularized 'Irish' entertainments such as fiddling, piping, dancing, reciting poetry, and listening to history lectures" (Foster 185). This organization elected Douglas Hyde to be the President and he stayed in office in that position for 22 years. "The census of 1851 showed 319,602 persons whose sole language was Gaelic, and 1,204,684 who spoke some Gaelic (perhaps only a few words) in addition to English; by 1891 the respective figures were 38,192 and 642,053" (Costigan 259); therefore, the numbers were decreasing drastically and the founding members found this to be disturbing, so they made it their mission to correct it. "The league's aims were, 'first, the preservation of Irish as the national language of the country, and its extension of its use as the spoken tongue; and second, the study and publication of existing Gaelic literature, and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish'" (Bottigheimer 213).

"The Gaelic League was nonsectarian and apolitical, but its purpose fit nicely into the newer nationalism" (Orel 329), which came as a great uplifting force, especially in the middle classes of Ireland, after being subjugated by the British for so long. "They could not visualize a free Ireland without a Gaelic-speaking Ireland; they aspired to unity through cultural immersion" (Orel 329), and "though their purpose was scholarly, it coincided with a spirit of national resurgence, which fostered on the one hand the literary revival and the formation of the Abbey Theatre, and on the other the Dublin Rising of 1916" (White 18). To create a sense of nationalism was not too difficult in the state Ireland was in at the time, but to carry out such measures were very tedious, due to the Anglo-Irish influences throughout the country, including professors at Trinity College, who said they "despised Gaelic as a language fit only for helots and corner boys," "that there was not a single Gaelic text that was not 'religious, silly, or indecent'," or "dismissed the Gaelic texts as 'metrical rubbish'" (Costigan 262). There were many forces opposing the Gaelic League, but there were also those that embraced it.

"The most important of these [supportive] forces were the Gaelic revival, the republican tradition of violent revolution, the labour movement and Sinn Fein" (Beckett 149) and however hard, "the league sought to maintain an apolitical 'neutrality,' ... [it] proved increasingly difficult as its membership swelled with political nationalists" (Bottigheimer 213). The league gave the Irish people an increased pride in being Irish and this led to them becoming agitated when confronted with British ways or laws infringing on their heritage. This fact led a large group of the league to participate in groups such as Sinn Fein, which were becoming increasingly militant. "Hyde resigned the presidency in 1915 over the League's drift to militancy, but by then the league had accomplished a large part of its objective" (Bottigheimer 213).

The Gaelic League still has strong chapters in the U.S., which act as meeting places for those that embrace the Irish language and the literature which comes from that tongue. The Gaelic League did succeed in keeping the Irish language around, because there are people still speaking it on a daily basis, studying it at colleges and remembering how the Irish have their own heritage and their own identity.

Works Cited

Bartlett, T., Curtin C., O'Dryer R. and Tuathaigh, G. eds. Irish Studies: A General Introduction. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1988.

Beckett, J.C. A Short History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to the Present Day. 6th ed. London: Hutchinson, 1979.

Bottigheimer, Karl S. Ireland and the Irish: A Short History. New York: Columbia UP, 1982

Costigan, Giovanni. A History of Modern Ireland. New York: Pegasus, 1969.

Foster, R.F., ed. The Oxford History of Ireland. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989

Orel, Harold ed. Irish History and Culture: Aspects of a People's Heritage. Wichita: The UP of Kansas, 1976.

White, Terence D.V. Ireland. New York: Walker and Co., 1968.