(An Ct.6.1Ue.6.rh souns.
be.6.tc.o.me 7 J 1910. May 7, 1910.
[AN CLAIDHEAMH SOLUIS,]
It is to confound those writers who, because they themselves are purblind, would make us wear ?pectacles fitted with opaque glass, that I wnte of Padraic O Conaire, the greatest short-story writer in the Irish language. He has won prize after prize at the Oireachtas. In fact, whenever he competes no other writer stands much chance of winning. Last year he won both the short-story prize, and the novel prize, the first ever won for such an essay in Irish fiction. This story is still in the hands of the Gaelic League Publication Committee, and its publication is anxiously awaited by readers of Irish. " Neill," the prize short story of last year's Oireachtas, and " Nora Mharcuis Bhig," the first story of the small volume to which it gives its name, may be taken as specimens of O Conaire's methods. As the exponent of the modern story in Irish he is unrivalled. No other writer that I know of possesses in the same degree the g�nius and wisdom that makes a writer give supreme attention to his story and give it the thread of human interest that makes it almost independent of plot. The weight of phrase, from classical Irish or from folk Irish, which many writers of undoubted ability attempt to carry into new creations makes their productions unreadable instead of literary. In Conaire's story the simplicity of language borders almost on weakness. You never meet with a line taken bodily out of Keating, or with long-forgotten or obscure phrases from the r8th century poets. The author's whole ambition is to tell his story, not to employ polished words, or rhetorical periods. He is simple, direct, and so free from localisms that the Irish speaker in any part of the Gaedhealtacht will find him as readable as an author of his own dialect. His methods are entirely modern. He has set aside the paraphernalia of the traditional seanchaidhe's method together with the seanchaidhe's phraseology. He is above the mechanical tricks of the modern '' maker '' of tales, and the human interest is so strong in his writings as to compel attention. He does not attempt to teach formally, and he is generally gloomy. His gloom, however, is not the morbid gloom of those who see all evil and nothing good in life. Underlying everything he writes is a deep love of humanity and of his own Gaelic race. He pictures with merciless sincerity the retribution that always follows selfishness and sin, but his pen, like that of Rene Bazin, is clean. He is a student of the school of writers that has lately sprung up in northern Europe, but he is a child of a milder climate, and of a race more optimistic than theirs. Ireland is full of human failings, just as every other land is. In '' Nora Mharcuis Bhig,'' there is an unsurpassed picture of the queer mixture of faults and virtues that go to make The old father, stern and up Irish life. ungenerous and selfish in his domestic arrangements, but a man who guards his family's honour with a spirit that will not bend ; Nora, a child of misfortune, but redeemable even in her fall, as the Irish vagrant generally is, for we are children of impulse; the young medical student, not typical, but characterless and depraved ; the meeting of Nora and this shadow of the past which drives her to seek refuge in a city church, and the storm within which drew from her agonised soul the long forgotten "A Naomh-Mhuire, Mhathair De"; her return home, and her final break with her stern old father, and his obliterating of her name from the fishing boat which her money enable� him to purchase, make one of the most poignant chapters of fiction. " K eill " is a wonderful picture of the revenge of a jealous woman, and of the things into which passion leads when once we place ourselves in its control. It has not yet appeared in book form. O C onaire is a pioneer of the new race of
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Irish writers. His strength lies in his humanity, in his feeling for the weak and old, for the young and helpless; in the fact that he has broken free from the antiquated language of the bard and seanchaidhe, and that he gives us Gaelic humanity as it is-of en weak, but not morbid, sternly Puritican in some virtues, but not always charitable. He has the admiration of the best friends of new Irish writers, yet, he is unknown to the school of critics that has taken on itself the care of " Ireland and the Arts." :iIAIXE.
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MAYNOOTH AT PLAY.
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The outside world regards Maynooth as a place of solemn study and prayer, and those who look with dismay on the disappearance of laughter from the face of Ireland are continually regretting that Maynooth students are so confined, so cut away from the fellowship of the people amongst who they might cultivate certain tastes and develop human sympathies, and learn the value and the joy of a good laugh. I will not offer any opinion on the wisdom of the Maynooth regulations that govern its student life, but I would remind the critics that the students take into their colleges a fund of humour and good sense which the severe demands of the study hall fail to exhaust. They are sons of the people, and before they become " teological tinkers," as they are called in some parts of the countrythrough a defect of speech-they go through the mill in which most of us learn how to sport and fight and be ma .ily. They spend some years in the rural school, they work in the fields and on the bog, they become acquainted with the vagrant life of the country-the pedlar, the tinker, the teaman, they hunt and shoot, with and without licence, kick Gaelic football and play hurley and handball, and manage to develop the art of caustic criticism of every new movement or personality that comes into the public ken. Gaelic League primness, even, does not disarm that criticism, but take them all and all, they are a fine lot of fellows of whom Irish Ireland has reason to be proud. A few weeks ago they produced a play which is as full of fun as a herring barrel is of - herrings. Not the classical wit of polished scholars, but the rollicking sort of fun which the students take with them from the country. The author of the play is one -- well he calls himself Mac Shane and Johnson. His subject is the trouble of people who have to teach school and sell tea without a knowledge of Irish. Miss O'Halloran is a young assistant, in Mr. Beirne's school, who gets one of the pupils punished for using language which she terms " gross " and "revolting." Poor Denis Mulloy, the culprit, has only flung a few Irish phrases at her, because he knew she abhorred the native speech. The Ta yman is a gentleman in "hciir oil and yellow boots" who wants to sell his tea, but finds that Irish is used as a Act I. protective tariff against his wares. consists of a school scene in which Miss O'Halloran and two pupils-buacailli bairecome into disagreeable contact with each other. The boys are playing pitch and toss in the neighbourhood of the school when detected by her. Then one of thern.] ack, teaches Denis some Irish phrases with which to annoy the young assistant mistress. This it is that leads Denis and Miss O'Halloran into trouble. The scene of Act II. is in Martin Mulloy's kitchen. Martin has just learned that his son Denis has been severely punished by Mr. Beirne, and has just resolved to go over next day and have a talk with the master, when a neighbour, Bryan Duggan comes in. Bryan is voluble, good-humoured and witty. He speaks Irish, and, instead of being apologetic for its use, he is somewhat aggressive. A passing teaman enters. He becomes the butt of the company's scarcasm and Irish is used to torture him. This act is a splendid one, and produces uproarous amusement. The teaman, who represents The Kilkenny Woodworkers have a splendid selection of Easy Chairs and Basket Chairs. If you want a special shape they can make it for you. Apply to 8 Nassau Street, Dublin, for particulars and designs.
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everything cheap and foreign, is, like all his class, uninformed and above everything native and national. He is cosmopolitan as a sailor, but is utterly at sea on his native soil. The third and final act takes us back to the school where Miss O'Halloran again displays her peculiar prejudices. An inquiry leads to her confusion and precipitates her exit from the school and the play. The principal teacher is an old man but he is not opposed to Irish, although he does not speak it. On the occasion of the first production of the play priests and bishops and doctors of Philosophy were physically exhausted as a result of the mirth produced by Mac Shane and Johnson's humour. Laughter is the best of medicine. It is a cure-all, and all Ireland should follow the example of the wise men of Maynooth and laugh at Toradh na Troda. SLIABH LAIGHEAN. ToRADH NA TROD A, By MAC SHANE and Messrs. :\I. H. Gill & Son. Price 6d.
JOHNSON.
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IRISH AT MATRICULATION.
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At a meeting of An Craobh Naoimh Phadraig Port an Choire the following resolution was proposed by Rev. J. Magowan, C.C., and seconded by Mr. J. Teggart, and passed unanimously : " That we express dissatisfaction at the unsatisfactory recommendations made by the Board of Studies of the new University with regard to the National Language, and hereby re-affirm our previous resolution that nothing short of Essential Irish at Matriculation will satisfy the demands of the majority of the Irish people." "That we express the hope that the Boards and Councils of the Nation will give no support, morally or :financially to the New University unless the demands of the nation at large ar fully satisfied."
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The West Cavan Executive, United Irish League, at a meeting held in Ballinagh on �1st April, unanimously passed a resolution (1) in favour of Essential Irish in the new University, (2) disapproving of the recommendations of the Board of Studies, and (3) asking the Cavan County Council to refuse to strike a rate-in-aid unless the Senate accedes to the demand of thr Irish people. At the Annual meeting of the Cavan County Board, G.A.A., held in Cavan, on 24th April, a similar resolution was unanimously passed.
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The Kilkenny Coiste Ceanntair of the Gaelic League have adopted the following resolutions:" That in view of the fact that the Governing Body of the National University of Ireland, bas not as yet signified its acceptance of the National demand for essential Irish for Matriculation. \Ve the members of the Kilkenny Coisde Ceanntair hereby record our support of the Gadic League demand for such recognition of the National Language, and we express our cordial approval of the !(ilkenny County Council's resolutioa , not to contnbute money towards the National University unless the National Language is so recognised; and further, that we pledge our best efforts to secure the defeat of every movement aimed at ev.idinz or curtailing the Gaelic League demand for essential Irish in the National University."
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The Dublin Corporation at its meeting held on last Monday, unanimously passed the following resolution : "Understanding that the question of the status of the Irish language in the National University will co�e before the Senate for final settlement at the meeting of that body to be held on Thursday next, May 5th, this Council respectfully urges upon the Senate the urgent necessity, bo_th from a n_?tional as well as an educational standpoint, of acceding to the demand of the Irish people as expr�ss�d through their elect�d representatives, that t�e Insh lang�age be essential for matriculat10n-that is, that the Irish language shall be one of the five subjects selected by the candidate from the list recommneded by the Board of Studies as fit subjects for examination preliminary to entrance to the University."
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The Nati onal Council of Sinn Fein adopted a resolution in support of the .....demand for essential Trish at Matriculation at its meeting on Tuesday. The North Roscommon Committee of the Gaelic Leagu � has adopted a similar resolution. The Manchester Branch of the Gaelic League has issued the following statement :" This Branch of the Gaelic League learns with the greatest concern that the Board of Studies of the Irish Xational University has rejected the demand that the Irish Language should be an essential subject for Matricu lation. "\Ve regard such decision as clt:ar proof that a majority of the Professors 1s devoid of the most
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A8R1D8ACC May 22nd,
At BROWNSTOWN, CURRAOH Songs, Chorsues, Recitations, Pipes, Violins, Ile.,
ROE McMAHON, YPEWRITERS T machines r,7:.,
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And I will send you an Enlargement from any Photo you desire, size 20• x 16•. ENLARGED IN IRELAND. {The last days ol Photoatraphy).
ALSO
DANCING
CO:MPETITION'B.
Open to all Ireland. General Entry, 1/-. .• 6d. Separate 4.-JIG-{Boys and Girfs in Co. Kildare, under 14.) Particulars from Ron. Sec., Gaelic League, William Rooney Branch, Brown9town, Curragh, Co. Kildare. 1.-JIG
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