Gaelic League :: Essays Papers

Gaelic LeagueWhat are the Irish known for? Most people would automatically hypothecate of some trivial fact about something like the white potato famine, others the stereotypical views of the Irish drinking habits, and undoubtedly good old Irish American pubs would decidedly come to mind. Although these are definitely interesting parts of the Irish history there are many other aspects to this unique heritage that truly enamour the spirit of the Irish tradition. The Gaelic League was started with the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association. This group founded in 1884 in attempts to promote and maintain Irish sports, helped to spawn the inclination of Irish nationalism which eventually personified itself into organizations such as the Gaelic League. The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 by Douglas Hyde and Ed MacNeil to spread the Irish oral communication (Hachey and McCaffery 14). organize in Barnesmore where language classes were held in the national school the supp ort of both Catholics and Protestants made it possible to branch off to other areas (OConnor 37). After the devastation of the potato famine and the implications of the home rule both the Gaelic League and its predecessor the Gaelic Athletic Association had the common goal of bringing forth Irish nationalism in a country that desperately needed national pride.This gesture for national pride had some success, but non before the mishap that preceded it. There are a few reasons that this move, for national pride, produced failure one was the reputation of the Irish and another was the pressure of politics put on the divers(prenominal) associations. The Irish language was considered to be a peasants language (OConnor 87). Because of this the people of country that were poor and not educated in the language did not think it was worth spending money to learn. Tthe people in the country that had the money to learn the language normally did not want to learn the language for th e mere fact it was considered to be a peasants language. Another reason for some of the failure that this movement attained is due to the political pressure created because of the nature of the movement itself. The two founders of the Gaelic League Hyde and McNeil never wanted the movement to become political (Gavin 56). However, this was inevitable. The movement caused a split in the people, those who were educated in the language and those who were not educated in the language (Hopkins 129).