Bourke Ulick J. Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
270
IMPORTANT
QUESTIONS.
There
are
in
Irish-Grelic
subjects
of
interest
connected
closely
with
that
which has
been
put
before the
reader's
view in the
chapter
just
closed,
regarding
the
phonetic
law of
vowel assimilation in
Irish,
and
the
all-pervading
influence, which,
in the
spoken
and
written
language
it
exercises
on
every syllable
spelled
or
spoken.
These
subjects
are best
shewn
by
putting
the
following
questions
:
1.
Had the
Irish-Gael,
before
the
Christian
Era,
and
consequently
before
the
Gospel
was
preached
in
Eir.5,
pos-
sessed
any
knowledge
of
letters,
and to what
extent
?
Coming
directly
next
in
order
is another
subject
wound
up
with
the
foregoing,
but
nevertheless
special,
and
on
that
account
demanding
a
special
answer
to
a
particular
proposition.
2.
Had
the
Irish-Gael who
nourished
in
the first
cen-
tury
of
the Christian
Era,
or
immediately
before
that
time
any
knowledge
of the art
of
writing
?
3. What
alphabet
or
form of
written
letters
did
they
use ?
Were
they
Semitic,
that
is, Hebrew,
Chaldaic
or.
ancient
Phenician,
or
were
they
of
Aryan
origin,
com-
ing
down
from the
great
ancestral
home
in
Persia,
before
the
first
migration
of
Aryans
had
found
a new
home
in
the
Isle
of
the
West
?
Questions
like the
foregoing,
at
times
in the same
in-
terrogatory
form,
have been
put,
but
never
satisfactorily
answered.
The
discussion
regarding
the
early
literature
of
the
Irish,
and
their
knowledge
of
the use
of letters at
the
very
earliest
historic
period
has
been
going
on since
the
days
of
Henry
II.
to
the
present
hour.
The
literary fight
has
been
waged
since
the
times when
the
native
Irish were first
pronounced
half
savages by
Giraldus
de
Barry,
well
known
as
Cambrensis
to
all
who
desired
to
raise
English power
and
English
civilization
CHAMPIONS.
271
by
the
process
of
despising
the Gael
in
their
own
country
and
exhibiting
them
in
the
light
o
advanced
barbarians.
Cambrensis
had hosts
of
followers. He
had the
press
and
the
power
of the
dominant
race
at
his back.
So
much
did
his
teaching
prevail,
that
foreign
writers
like
Bollandus
believed
the
early
Irish
were devoid
of
learn-
ing,
and had
in
the
Pagan
period
no
acquaintance
with
letters
until
the arrival
of
St.
Patrick in
Ireland.
It
is
only
a
few
years
ago
since James
Anthony
Froude
stood
up
in New
York before
the
American
public,
to show
from
history,
that
not
only Pagan
Ireland,
but Christian
Ireland
had,
previous
to the
coming
of the
English
amongst
them,
been
half
savages,
strangers
to refinement
;
and,
like the Hottentots
to
whom Pinkerton
likened
them,
had been
far removed
from the
softening
influences
of
civilization
and
literary
culture. The
very
rev.
historian,
Giraldus
Cambrensis,
and Rev. Father
Bollandus,
S.J.,
with
Pinkerton
and
Froude,
are the
leading
men
of the
past
and
present
who
directed the
literary
campaigning
against
the
civilization
and
literary
character
not
only
of
the
Pagan
Irish,
but
of the
Christian Irish who
had
lived
before
the
landing
of
the
English
on
the
southern
shores
of Ireland.
On
the other
hand,
the cause
of
Ireland's
civilization
and
literary
character
has been
very
ably
handled
by
learned
and clever
Irishmen,
lay
as
well
as
cleric.
Strange
to
say,
many
of thse
defenders
are
themselves
the
de-
scendants
of the
very
men
who,
as
invaders,
came
with
Henry
II.
;
v.g.
Rev. Dr.
Thomas
Burke,
the
erudite
author
of
the
Hibernia
Vominicana
;
"Very
Rev. Dr. John
Lynch,
Archdeacon
of
Tuam,
author
(1662,
A.D.)
of
the
cele-
brated Cambrensis
Eversus.
According
to
the
testimony
of
the
Very
Rev.
-Mathew
Kelly,
D.D.,
Professor
of
Belles-lelti'cs
in
St.
Patrick's
College,
Maynooth,
translator
272
THE
HERODOTUS OF
IRELAND.
and
editor
for the
Celtic
Society
of Cambrensis
Eversue,
the
author,
John
Lynch,
was one
of
the
most
eminent
men who
rose
with such
promise
about
the
close of
Eliza-
beth's
reign.
He was
born
in
Gal
way,
and
descended
from
a
family
who
claim
descent from
Hugh
De
Lacy,
one
of
the
most
successful
of the
first
race of
Anglo-
Norman
invaders.
The
Very
Eev.
Dr.
Geoffrey
Keating
the
Herodotus of
Ireland,
the
foremost
and
ablest
in
the
sixteenth
century,
or,
indeed,
at
any
other
period,
in
defending
the truth of
Ireland's
history,
was
of
.Norman
descent. The
illustrious
Irish
scholar
and erudite
historian
traces his
lineage
to
the
distinguished
family
of
that
name,
"
whose
various
branches
held
high
rank
and
large possessions
in
the
counties
of
Wexford, Kildare,
Carlow,
Waterford,
Tip-
perary,
and
Cork."
According
to
the
traditions
of the
family
legalised
by
the
books of
Heraldry
in
Ireland
the
founder
of
the
house,
whose
original
name is
unknown,
for surnames
were
at that
time
being
introduced
(12th
century),
was
one
of
the
pioneers
of
the
Norman
invaders,
who
lighted
the
beacon
fire
that
lit
the
way
of Fitz-
stephens."
The
story
is worth
relating,
for
it tells
how
it
happened
that as
the
founder
of
the
Keating
family,
lay by
his
watchfire,
a
wild
boar chanced to
prowl
quite
near,
and
was
on
the
point
of
attacking
him,
when
the
sparkling
and
crackling
of
the
fire
frightened
the
animal,,
and
caused
him
to flee.
The
first
of
the
Keating
family,
thus
providentially
saved,
adopted
as
his
armorial
"
sign,"
a
wild
boar
ram-
pant,
rushing
through
a
brake,
with the
motto
fortis
et
fidclis.
The
surname
which
he
assumed is
from
the
Irish
compound
term,
"
ceud-temne,
meaning
first
fire,
or
cetein,
hence
Keating.
This
origin
of
the
name
appears
very pretty
;
but
the
IRELAND'S BEST
PRIEXDS.
273
narration cannot ci-eate
conviction in
any
mind
desirous
of real historic
data.
Hal
is
Keting
was
the founder
of
the
family
;
and twelve
years
after
the
landing
of Fitz-
stephens,
the
name of Halis
Keting
is
found as subscrib-
ing
witness
to a
grant
to
Dunbrody
Abbey,
by
Henry
of
Montmorencie.
About the
year
15
70,
Geoffrey
Keating
was
born
at
Tubrid,
not far
from
Shanbally,
in
Tipper
ary.
Amongst
other
able
supporters
of
the
cause
of
historic
truth,
are to
be
ranked
Sir
James
Ware,
and
his
faith-
ful
expounder,
Harris
;
also
Archbishop
Ussher
j
Roderick
O'Flaherty,
author
of
the
Ogygia,
seu
rerum Hiberni-
carum
Chronologia
ex Pervetusiis Monumentis
fideliter
in
se
collatis, Londini,
A.D.,
1685.
The
truth of
Irish
history
was
defended
by
Brother Michael
O'Clery,
the
erudite
and noble leader
of
the last
literary
hope
of
Ireland
be-
fore the fatal war
of 1641
;
by
John
Colgan, by
Dr.
Petrie,
Dr.
O'Donovan,
O'Curry,
by
the late
lamented
Very
Rev.
Dr. Mathew
Kelly,
Maynooth,
by
Dr.
Todd of
Trinity
College,
the Hon.
D'Arcy
McGee,
by
most of
the
able
scholars
connected with
the
Royal
Irish
Academy,
the
Archasological
and
Keltic Societies
;
lastly,
amongst
the
living, by
the
Very
Rev. Thomas
Burke,
who
ably
and
victoriously
vindicated the cause of
historic truth
and
of
Ireland's
title to the
honorable
distinction
bestowed on
her
by
the
Venerable
Bede,
"
the
island
of
saints
and
scholars
;"
by
the
Most Rev
Dr.
Moran,
Lord
Bishop
of
Os-
sory, by
Sir William
"Wilde,
and
Lady
Wilde
(Sperariza),
by
the
most
laborious and
voluminous
writer in
modern
times Rev.
John
O'Hanlon,
of
St. Michael
and
John's,
Dublin,
who
has,
for the
past
thirty
years,
labored
with
wonderful
research,
to
compile
from all
possible
authentic
sources
the
lives,
not of a
few,
but of all
the
saints
of
Ireland
;
by
Sister
Mary
Frances
Cusack,
religieuse
of
the
Orrlor of
"Poor
Clo.ros,
Fenninre a
lalv
v/lirj
commands
274
IRELAND'S CLAIM
the most
facile
pen
of all the
distingu
ished
writers
of
the
present
time,
and
certainly
the
most
gifted
authoress
of this
century
j
by
Alexander
Sullivan,
M.P.
for
Louth,
and author
of
the
Story
of Ireland
;
by
Martin
Haverty,
Esq.
;
and,
though
last
named,
not
the
least
distinguished
for
learning
and for
the
impartial
his-
toric
testimony
he
has
given during
an
eventful life
John
Mitchell.
And
touching
this
controversy
concerning!
Ireland's
claim
to
a
literary
name
in the fifth
century,
and
in
her
pre-christian
days,
it
must
be stated at
the
very
outset,
regarding
those
who have been
engaged
in
it,
that
all
who
gave
their
views
in a
spirit
of
hostility
to
the Irish
race,
have been
either
absolutely
ignorant
of the
special
subjects
concerning
which
they
wrote
;
or if
not
ignorant,
filled with
prejudice,
as
in
the
instances
of
Giraldus
de
Barry
and
that of James
Anthony
Froude
;
or
from
the
one-sided
view
which
they
took,
or
were
obliged
to
take,
they
distorted
facts,
and
presented
past
events in
the
historic
light
in which
it
was their
wish
or their
office
that
posterity
should
view
the
deeds of
past
periods
along
the
high-ways
of
Irish
history.
A
man
may
be
learned
in
one
subject
or
in a
thousand
subjects,
and
yet
be
very
ignorant
of
others,
concerning
which
he has
had no in-
formation,
and
cares to
have
none.
Clever
men
may
be
very
learned
in
history
and in
science and in
Catholic
theology,
if
you
will,
as
the
Flemish
Father
Bollandus
had
most
certainly
been,
and,
nevertheless,
they
might
be,
as
they
actually
were,
very
ignorant
of
the
private
laws
and
history
of either
Japan,
or of
Ireland.
Now
the
Irish
people
had been in
the
past
as
unknown
to
those
writers,
as
the
Japanese
in
the
past
and
in
the
present
have
been
to
many
Europeans.
On
the
other
hand,
those
who
have
vindicated
the
cha-
TO
A
LITERARY
NAME.
275
racter
and cause
of
Ireland,
who
say
that
she was
a
hive
of
learning
from
the
year
A.
D.,
432
to
800,
a
period
when,
as
Aengus
states,
there
were
countless
hosts
of
illuminated
books in
Erin
;
that
previous
to
St.
Patrick's
coming
to
preach
the faith to
the
Irish,
she
possessed
a
history
and
a
literature
of her
own
;
that a
literary
order
the
Bardic
had
been in
the
reign
of Conor
Mac^essa,
and
long
before
that
period,
a
standing
national
institution
amongst
tho
Irish
Gaels,
as it had
been,
hundreds
of
years
previous
to that
time,
amongst
the tribes and
people
of
Keltic
de-
scent
;
that
they
had
an
alphabet;
that
they
had
the
Brehon
Laws
written;
that there were
books
written
"and
in
the
possession
of the
Druids
before
the arrival
"
of our
na-
tional
apostle,
were
all
native-born
writers,
and
they
display,
in
reality,
the
greatest
amount of
research
and
knowledge
in
antiquities
and in
history.
TWO CLASSES OF WRITERS
IN
OPPOSITION.
These two classes
of writers
are
opposed
one
to
the
other. The one side
maintains and
gives
strong proofs
to
show
that the
pre-Christian
Gaels
possessed
a
litera-
ture,
and
practised
a mode of
writing
and
of
keeping
records
;
and that
they
had
an
alphabet quite
different
from,
and
independent
of,
both
the
Greek and
the
lioman
form
and character.
The others who
do
not
adopt
these
views,
reject
the
arguments,
repudiate
the
authority
of
the
writers cited
B.& that of
mere
rhymers
and
story-
tellers,
no
way
worthy
of
credit.
The
three
subjects,
the
very early
Christian
and
pre-
Christian
civilization,
literary
fame and
the
alpha-
bet
letters are
so
blended one with the
other,
that
it
is
not
well
to
separate
them.
COMPARATIVE
PHILOLOGY.
The
arguments
drawn
from the science
of
comparative
276
THE
QUESTION
STATED.
philology
rise
above
all
these
debated
points
of
history,
and
throw,
on the
question
of
Ireland's
early
civilization,
a
new
light
which,
up
to the
present
time,
has
never
beamed
on
the
pages
of
Eire's ancient
story.
Critics
cannot
cavil with certain
philological
facts,
the
deduc-
tions
from which
are
quite
clear,
and
strong
enough
to
convince
any
candid
lover
of
truth.
And
first,
let the
question
be
put
before the
reader
from
the
pages
of
the
latest
and
best
work
written on
the
early
records of
ancient Eire 0'
Curry's
Manuscript
Materials
of
Irish
History.
To
give
extracts from
all
the
works
at hand
on this
interesting
subject
would
fill
a
volume.
Three
or four
quotations
must
suffice.
"
Amongst
the
large
quantities
of
MS.
records
which
have come
down to our
times,
will
be
found
examples
of
the literature
of
very
different
periods
of
our
history.
Some
possess
a
degree
of
antiquity,
very remarkable,
indeed,
when
compared
with
similar
records of
other
countries
of
modern
Europe.
Those
manuscripts,
which
we
now
possess, belonging
to
the
earliest
periods, are,
themselves,
we
have
just
reason to
believe,
either
in
great
part
or
in
the whole
but
transcripts
of
still
more
ancient
works."
"
At
what
period
in
Irish
history
written
records be-
gan
to
be
kept
it
is,
perhaps,
impossible
at
present
to
determine
with
precision.
However,
the
national
tra-
ditions
assign
a
very
remote
an'iquity
and a
high
degree
of
cultivation
to
the
civilization
of
our
Pagan
ancestors."
1. Without
granting
to
such
traditions
a
greater
de-
gree
of
credibility
than
they
are
strictly
entitled
to,
it
must,
I
think,
be
admitted that
the
immense
quantity
of
historical
legendary
and
genealogical
matter
relating
to
the
pagan
age
of
ancient
Erin,
and
which
we
can
trace
to
the
verv
oldest
written
documents,
of
which
we
enter-
LEARNING
IN
ANCIENT
EIRE 277
tain
any
account,
could
only
have been
transmitted
to
our
times
by
some
form, of
written
record'.
What
was
the
probable
state
of
learning
in Erin about
the
period
of the introduction
of
Christianity
by
St.
Patrick
?
2.
There
is abundant
evidence
in the
manuscripts
re-
lating
to this
period
(the
authority
and
credibility
of
which
are
readily
proved),
to show
that St. Patrick
found
on his
coming
to Erin a
regularly
defined
system of
law and
policy,
and a fixed
classification
of
the
people
according
to various
grades
and
ranks,
under the
sway
of a
single
monarch,
presiding
over
certain subordinate
provincial
kings."
3.
*'
We
find mention likewise
of books
in the
posses-
sion
of
the Druids before
the arrival
of St.
Patrick,
and
it is
repeatedly
stated
(in
the
Tripartite
Life
of
the
Saint),
that
he
placed
alphabets,
primers
or
lessons,
in the Latin
language
in the
hands
of
those whom he
wished
to take
into his
ministry."
4.
"
We have also several
remarkable
examples
of the
literary
eminence which was
rapidly
attained
by
many
of
his
disciples, amongst
whom
may
be
particularly
men-
tioned
Benen,
or
Benignus
;
Mochoe,
and Fiacc of
Slebhte,
or
Sletty.
This last is
the author of
a
biographical
poem
in
the
Gaelic
language,
a most ancient
copy
of
which still
exists,
and which
bears
internal evidence
of
a
high
degree
of
perfection
in
the
language
of
the time
in
which it
was
composed.
And it is
unquestionably
in
all
respects
a
genuine
and
native
production,
quite
un-
tinctured
with the
Latin,
or
any
other
foreign
contem-
porary
style
or
idiom.
There
are,
besides,
many
valuable
poems,
and
other
compositions
referable to this
period
which
possess
much
of the
same
excellence
;
and
among
these
are even
278
ART
OF
WRITING IN
EIRE.
a few
still
extant
attributed to
Dubthach
Ua
Lugair
?
chief
poet
of the monarch
Laeghaire,
who
was
uncle
on
the mother's
side,
and
preceptor
of the
Fiacc
just
men-
tioned."
From the
body
of
Lecture
I,
pp.
4,
5.
The
following
paragraphs
are
from
the
Appendix,
No.
II.,
to
O'Curry's
Manuscript
Materials,
pp.
463,
472.
OP
WRITING IN ERINN BEFORE
ST.
PATRICK'S TIME.
"
It
is,
perhaps, impossible
now to
arrive
at
any
cer-
tain
conclusion
as
to the
nature
of
the
writing
in
which the
records
were
kept,
and
history,
poetry,
and literature
preserved
amongst
the
Gaels of
Erinn,
in
the
ages
which
preceded
the
coming
of
St
Patrick."
In the
absence of
any
known remains of
the
writing
of
the
pre-Christian period,
it
may,
indeed,
be
reasonably
asked,
what reason
there is to think
or believe
that
the
Gaels
were at all
acquainted
with
any
form
of
written
characters ?
Do
ivejind
any
names still
preserved
in
the Gaelic lan-
guage
and ancient
writings
for a
hook,
parchment,
writing
pen,
ink,
page,
line,-
stave,
in
use
in,
or
having
reference
to,
these
early ages.
"These,"
says
O'Curry,
"
are
important
questions,
and
I
must
confess,"
he
adds,
"
that I
have not
paid
so much
attention to
their
consideration
as
to
enable me to
give
anything
like a full or
satisfactory
answer to them.
At
the
same time I
must
observe that I
believe
the
subject
to be one
which
it
is now
too
late
to
attempt
to clear
up,
so
scanty
are the
remnants,
and
so
widely dispersed
are
those
of
our ancient
books,
or rather of
those
copies,
a
few
only
of which
have
come^
down to us.
Enough,
however,
to
my
mind,
remains
to
show
(at
least,
I
myself
feel
perfectly
satisfied)
that the
pre-Christian
Gaels
pos-
sessed
and
practised
a
system of
writing
and
keeping
records
quite
different
from,
and
independent
of,
both the
Greek
anil
the
Roman
form
and
-characters,
which
gained currency
in
HER
ANCIENT LITERATURE.
279
the
country
after
the
introduction
of
Christianity
in
the
first
part of
the
fifth
century,
if,
indeed,
they
were not
known
here
even
a considerable
time before that era."
"
It is
not,"
says^O'Curry
"
my
business here to offer
any opinion
as
to the
characters in which the
'
Saltair
of
Tara,'
and
the
'
Cin Droma
Sneacta,'
were
originally
written
;
though
I
dare
say,;
it
may
have been the modi-
fied
Roman character
of
the time."
p.
464.
rr>
And
at
the.
close
of
his learned
remarks
in
p.
472,
he
writes'*:
",My
own
opinion
is,
that these books
'
Saltair
of
Teamhair'
and
the book
of 'Drom
Sneacta,'
probably,
were
not written
(in
Ogham)
out in the
popular
Roman
charac-
ters of
the
time,
modified,
perhaps,
as at
present (?)
;
and
that
these
characters
were first
brought
in
(to
Eire)
by
the
Druids
and
Poets, who,
from
time
to
time,
had
travelled
in
pursuit
of their
studies
to the
continent,
or
had
attended the
many
distant
foreign
expeditions
which
took
place from
this
country
even
previously
to the
period of
the Incarnation.
A
LITERATURE
IN IRELAND IN PAGAN
TIMES,
CERTAIN.
1.
It
is,
at all
events,
quite
certain that
the
Irish Druida
and
Poets
had
written books before
the
coming
of St.
Patrick,
in
432,
since we
find
the statement
in
the
ancient
Tripartite
Life of the
Saint,
as well as
in
the an-
notations
of
Tireach^n,
preserved
in
the Book
of
Armagh,
and which were
taken
by
him
from
the
lips
and
books
of
his tutor St.
Machta,
who
was
the
pupil
and
disciple
of
St.
Patrick
himself.
2.
The
"
Saltair of
Tara,"
to
which
reference
had been
made in
the
foregoing
quotation,
was
composed,
or
com-
piled,
by
Oormac
MacArt,
son
of
Conn,
in
the
third
century.