58 The Eisteddfod and the Fets Ceoil. 



Folk music ; and certain it is, that while itjis international in 

 the sense that it is great art, the music of Liszt, Greig, Brahms, 

 Wieniowski, and other modern composers of the first rank is 

 national in a very literal sense. If we have any hope of forming 

 a modern school of Irish music, we must lovingly preserve and 

 make known those precious outpourings of an earlier and less 

 conventionalised civilization. 



The happiness of a people, its self-respect and its character 

 are inextricably bound up in its arts and crafts, its music, its 

 painting, its literature. These are the real things that endure 

 to the end, not the ephemeral changes that warfare and 

 material progress bring about. Battles have been fought and 

 won, dynasties changed, and it has made but little difference 

 to the world. What has done so has been such a thing as the 

 impress of a mind and art like the Greek. Such an influence 

 is practically imperishable. 



To teach a people to stand firmly on its own merits, not to 

 imitate the fashions and ideas of another race, but to lift its 

 head among nations, as a self-respecting and self-reliant entity 

 in the civilization of the world, contributing its impetus to the 

 progress of the human race, perhaps adding some inestimable 

 gift which no other people can give — this is the true nationality 

 and it is with ideals such as these that the Feis Ceoil has been 

 founded, and that the Eisteddfod has been kept alive for so 

 many years. 



On ihe conclusion of the lecture vocal selections in illustration 

 of some of the more beautiful but less-known Irish airs were 

 given by Mr. W. Thomas and Mr. W. Curran. Mr. Thomas 

 sang " Movourneen Mine " and " The Heather Glen," as 

 arranged by Signor Esposito, while Mr. Curran gave *' The 

 Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill " and " The Return from 

 Fingal," arranged by Dr. Stantord. A number of the tunes 

 played on the Irish bagpipes in the competitions at the Feis 

 Ceoil in Dubhn, were reproduced on the phonograph, under 



