IRISH GARDENING 



27 



the woods and plcasuiL- ground 



dso open for 



trespass it will be seen that the whole fifty acres arc 

 devoted either to educational or recreative purposes. 



But what will interest g-ardeners most is that St. 

 Enda's College has perhaps the most remarkable 

 member oftheir craft to be found in the United Kingdom. 

 This is illiceAL m.^5 UiiA.t)ni (in English, Michael 

 Rogers), whose name all over Irish-speaking Ireland 

 and among GaeWc scholars and students everywhere is 

 one to conjure with. He is a well-known author. 

 His books are standard 

 works of Irish literatuie ; 

 they are prescribed 



texts for the examina- 

 tions of the National 

 University and the 

 Intermediate, and ate 

 in general use in the 

 Gaelic colleges. He is 

 obliged to dictate all his 

 works, for in common 

 with many of his coimtry- 

 men in Connaught, who 

 attended the National 

 Schools of thirty years 

 ago, he cannot read or 

 write. In these schools 

 children who knew only Irisli we 

 taught through the medium of English, 

 with the result that they learned to read 

 or write neither language, and acquired 

 but a smattering of English for conversa- 

 tional purposes. 



So it is that Michael Rogers, the 

 author of works obligatory to students of 

 Irish in the National University and the 

 Intermediate Colleges, would be described 

 by the Census Reports as illiterate. He 

 is a most interesting personalit)- and an 

 eloquent talker. He has won six gold 

 medals for orator}' at the OqioAcrcAp com- 

 petitions, in each of which occasions 

 speech was impromptu. He has spent 

 twenty-five years of his life as a gardener. 

 He began his career in the gardens at 

 Summer Hill, near Killala, Co. Mayo, but 

 later found his way to Dublin. Since the 

 opening of St. Enda's he has been head- 

 gardener there, and in addition to his 

 Other duties he teaches practical garden 

 of the school. 



It should, perhaps, be explained that St. Enda's School, 

 which was founded in 1908, set out " witli the object 

 of providing a secondary education distinctiveh 1 

 in complexion, bi-lingual in method, and of a higl 

 modern type generally." This being so, it is quiti 

 according to the high aims and objects of the schoo 

 to have such a brilliant (iai'lic scholar as chief of 1 

 gardening staff. 



The following are the names of sotiu> o( Mr. Roger 

 works : — 



bticAjA ente<\nii ("The Lies of Ireland"— a folk-tale); 

 Three Folk-tales in the collection known as " ('wn ,\n Ceoil 

 V)inn " ; several folk-tales incorporated in collections of 



Dr. Douglas Hyde; " IIIac lllic K\|s;.\i)\o InrnJe 

 lutmuij" ("The Son of the Son of the Yellow Fisher- 

 man of Limerick," a folk-tale); " Liib nA CAillije" 

 ("The Hag's Loop"— a folk-tale); " beAtA Aox)a Hi 



tleilL " (" The Life of Hugh O'Neill "). 



We are not at present concerned with St. Enda's as 

 a college, only so far as it affects nature study and 

 gardening, but we may be permitted to say that we 

 know of no school in Ireland (or for the matter of that 

 in England either) that 

 approaches so near to 

 the ideals of all true 

 educationalists. The 

 headmaster is an en- 

 thusiast with the rare 

 ability of transmitting 

 is enthusiasm to all who 

 ome within the circle 

 ence — staff 



oi: I he Cascades. 

 Bridge. 3. Tht 



2. The Waterfall and Old 

 i-s' Bathing rool. 



