Lining up a large queue tomorrow, sorry for the hiatus. xx
Literally, I invoke the land of Ireland. This blog is dedicated to one of the most breathtaking places we have on this Earth.
The Gaelic Journal (Irish: Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge) was a periodical publication ”exclusively devoted to the preservation and cultivation of the Irish Language”. According to Tomas O Flannghaile it was “the first journal devoted to the living Irish language”. It has been described by the historian Donnchadh Ó Corráin as “the first important bilingual Irish periodical”. It was established with the help of Douglas Hyde, and first published in 1882, by the Gaelic Union, and from 1893 by the Gaelic League. After some initial irregularities, the journal was published monthly until 1909.
Its first editor was David Comyn, followed by John Fleming, Eoghan O’Growney and from November 1894 Eoin MacNeill. MacNeill was succeeded by Seosamh Laoide in 1899. From 1902 to 1909 the editor was Tadhg Ó Donnchadha.
The first 48 issues were numbered consecutively, with Volume 1 consisting of numbers 1–12, Volume 2 numbers 13–24 and so on. From Volume 5 in 1894 the numbering was 1–12 for each Volume.
The Gaelic Journal was bilingual, with texts in Irish and English. There was also occasionally texts published in other languages, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and French. The content spanned many genres; folktales, literary texts, poetry, historical studies, fiction and drama, as well as articles on topics both academic and controversial. There was also a series of “Simple lessons in Irish”, adapted from the series originally created by O’Growney for the Weekly Freeman.
In an article that appeared under the title “Our Position” in the third number of the Gaelic Journal in January 1883, the causes and agencies that made the Gaelic Journal a reality are mentioned, as
(1) a growing taste among the reading portion of our people for things national, and a juster idea of the value of such things as we can still call our own; (2) the labours of devoted Irish scholars during the last fifty years—as O’Donovan,O’Curry, Davis, Petrie, Todd, Archbishop MacHale, Canon Bourke, S. H. O’Grady, John Fleming, Hennessy and Whitley Stokes—some of whom, happily, we have still amongst us; (3) the labours of continental scholars in the general field of Indo-European philology, and more particularly those of Pictet, Zeuss, Ebel, Gaidoz, de Jubainville, and others in the special field of Celtic philology; (4) the labours of learned bodies like the Royal Irish Academy, the Celtic Society, even those of the Irish Archaeological Society, but more especially those of the Ossianic Society; (5) the establishment of the “Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language;” and (6) above all the formation of the Gaelic Union, for no other society or body had ever thought or would ever think of so practical a means of cultivating the language—or indeed, of cultivating the living language at all.
The causes that had “operated against the rise of a vernacular Irish press” are described as “beyond the scope and province of this journal to discuss,” before it is added that “but as they are obvious, there is all the less need to refer to them here”.
(Source: irish-history)
Poster promoting the Gaelic League’s Seachtmhain na Gaedhilge language collection. On the left is a proud Celtic Éire, patently in control of herself, her country and her destiny, juxtaposed with a West British figure draped in a shabby Union Jack, crouching like a beggar with hand outstretched towards England.
The artist was Cesca Chenevix Trench, or Sadhbh Trínseach, as she was better known. She studied art in Paris and Dublin, and produced this poster and Christmas cards for the Gaelic League in 1913. She was involved with Cumann na mBan, nursed the wounded of the Easter Rising, and was detained by the authorities as a spy shortly thereafter. Sadhbh Trínseach died on 30 October 1918 of the Spanish Flu that swept across Europe that year.
(Source: irish-history)
Ancient standing stone, and newer church at Glencolmcille … Co. Donegal, Ireland
(via dwellerinthelibrary)
“The Patriot Game” is an Irish ballad written by Dominic Behan.
The song concerns an incident during the Border Campaign launched by the Irish Republican Army during the 1950s. It was written by Dominic Behan, younger brother of playwright Brendan Behan, to the tune of an earlier folksong, “The Merry Month of May” (recorded by Jo Stafford and Burl Ives as “The Nightingale”). It tells the story of Fergal O’Hanlon, an IRA Volunteer from Ballybay, County Monaghan who was killed at the age of 20 in an attack on Brookeborough Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in County Fermanagh on 1 January 1957. The operation was devised and led by Sean Garland, an IRA man from Dublin. Another volunteer, Seán South from Limerick, was also killed during the raid.
Behan later became close friends with Sean Garland, officiating as the best man at Garland’s wedding. Garland gave the eulogy at Behan’s funeral in 1989.
The song is one of the best known to emerge from the Irish nationalist struggle and has been popular amongst the IRA, as well as other groups. “The Patriot Game” has been recorded by numerous artists, including the Kingston Trio, The Bluebells, The Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers. It also appears on the Judy Collins LP record Whales and Nightingales.
The last line of the song was originally “For the cowards who sold out the patriot game”, but most recent versions say “… Quislings who sold out the patriot game”. This change featured on Harvey Andrews’s 1975 version of the song.
(Source: irish-history)
Bestiary, with extracts from Giraldus Cambrensis on Irish birds illustrating the text that the beavers’ testicles had healing properties, and that the animals would bite them off in order to escape capture. 2nd quarter of the 13th century.
Yes perfect.
(Source: irish-history)
