14 IRISH SPELLING 



the right, conceded to every other language in Western 

 Europe, of using the best known alphabet in the world. 

 We must not use the Roman alphabet. We must write then 

 in a different alphabet ? No ! in a medieval form of the 

 very same alphabet ! 



What is now commonly called the Irish alphabet is 

 not of Irish invention. Our ancestors never laid claim 

 to the honour which some of their descendants covet on 

 their behalf. Their own name for the form of writing 

 in Irish manuscripts and in most modern Irish printed books 

 was in aibgitir latinda " the Latin alphabet." We have 

 simply been more conservative in Ireland than in the rest 

 of Europe, so that an Irish manuscript of the sixteenth 

 century looks, at a glance, like a continental Latin 

 manuscript of the eighth. 



The first book printed in Gaelic was Carswel's transla- 

 tion of John Knox's Liturgy, which appeared in Edinburgh 

 in 1567. Though published in Scotland it was written 

 in the literary dialect common to Ireland and Scotland. 

 Probably it would have been better understood in Ireland. 

 Indeed, as far as language and style go it might have been 

 written by Keating himself. In this book the ordinary 

 modern form of the Roman alphabet was used, and it set 

 a fashion which has been followed ever since in Scotland. 



I should be ashamed to discuss seriously before you 

 the question whether Irish books printed in this fashion 

 are Irish or not, or to answer objections like that of an 

 anonymous writer to the press who protests " it makes 

 me quite sick to see Irish printed in English letters." This 

 is an extreme case, which I prefer to leave to my colleagues 

 of the medical faculty. Or perhaps one might show the 

 patient a copy of Dr. Hyde's great collection of folk-tales, 

 An Sgeuluidhe Gaodhalach, and before the sight of the 

 " English " letters had done any great harm, one might 

 display the title-page and the imprint Rennes. If he could 

 stand another shock the same day one might then show him 

 a modern version of the story of Deirdre, also edited by 

 the President of the Gaelic League, and published in a 

 German periodical at Halle. 



