Gaelic League :: Essays Papers

Gaelic LeagueWhat be the Irish known for? Most people would automatically think of nearly trivial fact about something like the potato famine, others the stereotypical views of the Irish drinking habits, and undoubtedly good old Irish American pubs would unquestionably come to mind. Although these are definitely interesting parts of the Irish record there are many other aspects to this unique heritage that rightfully capture the spirit of the Irish tradition. The Gaelic League was started with the founding of the Gaelic Athletic necktie. This group founded in 1884 in attempts to promote and maintain Irish sports, helped to spawn the idea of Irish matterism 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 air the Irish words (Hachey and McCaffery 14). Formed in Barnesmore where talking to classes were held in the national school the support of both Catholics and Pr otestants made it possible to branch collide with to other areas (OConnor 37). After the devastation of the potato famine and the implications of the home shape 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 movement for national pride had some success, but not before the failure that preceded it. in that respect are a few reasons that this move, for national pride, produced failure one was the report card of the Irish and another was the pressure of politics put on the divergent 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 extremity to learn the language for the mere fact it was considered to be a peasants language. other 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 neer wanted the movement to become political (Gavin 56). However, this was inevitable. The movement caused a fall apart in the people, those who were educated in the language and those who were not educated in the language (Hopkins 129).