Ireland In The New CenturyPlunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
History
Ireland In The New Century
Plunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
Ireland -- Economic conditions; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1901-1910; Irish question
The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new
influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be
understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all
such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national
advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League
will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do
to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is
being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts
where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies,
and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and
social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages
are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services
of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy,
and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get
the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their
domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other
districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to
the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts
are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which
belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that
common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force
also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central
problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland.
It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an
outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the
progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish
mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to
this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life
at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of
education have all, in their respective influences upon the people,
missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should
have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the
intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a
recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not
been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole,
a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne
testimony to its patriotic endeavours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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