400 TUE 131UTISII ISLES. 



was 5,293 square miles, v:iih 545,058 inliabitunts.* Altogether Irisli was spoken in 

 1851 by 1,524,280 persons (23-2() per cent, of the population) ; in 1871 by only 

 817,875 persons (15-11 percent, of the population), and amongst these latter there 

 were only 103,563 who were unable to speak English. Erse, which is written in 

 the same characters as its predecessor bér/a fcini, no longer suffices for giving 

 expression to all our modern ideas, and notwithstanding the efforts of resuscitation 

 made by the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, English has 

 become the language of civilised life, as in the other parts of the kingdom, and the 

 days of Irish are numbered. Not a newspaper is published in that tongue, and 

 the translations of the Iliad and of Moore's " Irish Melodies," recently prepared 

 by the Most Eev. John McHale, are not works intended to meet a popular demand. 

 The older Irish literature, however, is very rich. It includes amongst others a 

 large number of manuscripts relating to the traditions of Ireland. Most of these 

 works show that the manners which existed at the time of their composition have 

 passed away. Amongst the many Irish documents and chronicles preserved in the 

 library of Trinity College are the " seven times fifty " histories, which the old 

 bards used to relate on festive occasions in the presence of chiefs and king. These 

 "histories" deal with massacres, battles, invasions, sieges, navigations, voyages, 

 visions, tragedies, and kindred subjects.f 



But though Erse is on the point of being altogether superseded by a language 

 possessing greater vitality, and better adapted to give expression to contemporary 

 ideas, it will survive in the geographical nomenclature of the country. Mountains 

 will continue to be known as Slieve, Ben, or Knock ; hills, mounds, and rocks will 

 still remain Duns, Carricks, Croaghs or Croghans, Cloghs, and Kens ; the words 

 Lough and Innish, or Ennis, will apply to lakes and islands ; a swampy plain 

 will be known as Curragli ; a watercourse as Ana, or Anagh ; towns and villages 

 will be recognised by the prefixes Kill and Balbj ; while J/o>-e (Great) and 5^^ 

 (Little) will serve to distinguish neighbouring mountains, rivers, bogs, and inlets 

 of the sea. 



Ogham inscriptions have been found far more plentifully in Ireland than in 

 the sister island, and they have given rise to incessant discussions amongst the 

 learned. This alphabet, which they succeeded in deciphering after bilingual 

 descriptions in Latin and Old Irish had been discovered in the south of England 

 and in "Wales, % consists of lines, or groups of lines, attached to a single stem. 

 Several of these inscriptions, and apparently those of the latest date, read 

 backwards ; that is, from right to left. According to the ancient chronicles 

 the oghams were introduced into Ireland by the Tuatha-de-dananns many 

 centuries before the Christian era, and they certainly date back to a time when the 

 inhabitants were heathens. These characters are in all probability of an age 

 anterior to that of the Romans ; for we can hardly conceive that they should have 



* Eavenstein, " On the Celtic Languages in the British Isles," 1879. 



t Brian O'Looney, "On Ancient Historic Tales of the Irish Language," Proceedings of the Royal 

 Irish Academ;/, December, 1875. 



X Sam. Ferguson, Froceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, August, 1874. 



