LITERATURE AND ETYMOLOGY 29 



orthography has been praised as a kind of touchstone which 

 enables the learned to display their learning, and convicts 

 the ignorant of ignorance. If that is the true function 

 of orthography, then undoubtedly this "6 serves a most 

 useful purpose, though one somewhat embarrassing to its. 

 admirers. 



Objection 3. " The people of Ireland are devoted to 

 the old spelling." 



In a sense, I could wish this were true. Unfortunately 

 the people of Ireland, as any publisher of Gaelic books 

 will tell you, care precious little about the old spelling. 

 If they are so devoted to it, why has the Gaelic Journal 

 been allowed to die ? Why could not a great organization 

 like the Gaelic League find support for a small monthly 

 organ ? Outside the schools and classes, and apart from 

 the various examination programmes, is there any reading 

 public, any demand for books in Irish, which would pay 

 the expense of publication ? You know there is not. 

 Those who profess to speak on behalf of " the people of 

 Ireland " and their " national sentiment," are either unable 

 or unwilling to face the facts. 



Objection 4. " You want to destroy all our old books 

 and manuscripts, and to cut us off from all the literature 

 and all the writers from the time of Cormac mac Airt (or 

 Cormac mac Cuileannain) to the present day." 



I must really apologize for discussing such absurdities. 

 But this objection has repeatedly been urged in all serious- 

 ness by persons who were at least old enough to write 

 letters to the papers. 



I should be the last to permit the destruction of old 

 books and manuscripts, which it is my business to study 

 and expound. This fear of being cut off from our ancient 

 literature generally marks the critic who has yet to make 

 its acquaintance. If such a person as Cormac mac Airt 

 wrote his name in Ogham characters, it was probably as 

 much as he could do. As for the famous King-bishop 

 with whom some of our critics confuse him, Cormac mac 



