The Irish Language and Irish Intermediate Education

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GAELIC LEAGUE PAMPHLETS—No. 15. ONE PENNY. Che Irish Language and Irish Intermediate Education. V. FOREIGN TESTIMONY. [PREFATORY NOTE.] THIS pamphlet contains a number of letters referred to by Dr. Hyde in his evidence before the Viceregal Commission of Inquiry, and handed in at the close of his examination. They appear in one of the Blue-books. Some of them, as will be seen, are from the most distinguished living Celtologists. It is needless to do more than mention the names of Windisch, Zimmer, Pedersen, Meyer, and Dottin. The letters were all sent to Dr. Hyde, with a view to the evidence which he undertook to give as President and spokesman of the Gaelic League. He had asked the writers beforehand (a) for their opinion on the evidence of Dr. Mabaffy and Mr. Gwynn, and (b) for their views as to the importance of the Irish language in Irish Intermediate Education. Dr. Atkinson had not then given his so-called evidence; but these letters enabled the Commissioners—Mr. Justice Madden, particularly—to drive Dr. Atkinson, during his examination, from practically every position that he had taken up in his opening statement. It is interesting to compare the calm, cogent reasoning of the letters with Dr. Atkinson's verbal thunder, wild rhetoric, and reckless unsupported assertion. Drs. Windisch, Stern, and Zimmer wrote in German, and M. Dottin in French. The translations here given are taken from the Blue-book. All the others wrote in English.