On This Day / August 5, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
August 5, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 5th August 1921, Éamon de Valera urged the Gaelic League to protect the Irish language, declaring it fundamental to the nation’s identity and future. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
De Valera and Irish | On This Day – 5th August 1921
SPEAKING at the [Gaelic League] Ard Fheis in Dublin yesterday, Mr de Valera said he did not come for the purpose of making an oration but to shake hands with old friends.
He was certain that as long as the country preserved its language it would be able to defend itself.
The President appealed to them to lie into the work of keeping the language alive in the places where it was still spoken.
Every native Irish speaker who died was a great loss to the nation. It was not possible for any person, unless he knew Irish from the cradle, to acquire the native speaker’s knowledge of it.
They should therefore do their best to save the language in the districts where it was spoken as a living tongue.
He suggested that special attention should be devoted to districts bordering on the Gaeltacht because it was easier to Gaelicise these districts than other parts of the country.
‘It is my opinion that Ireland with its language and without freedom is preferable to Ireland with freedom and without its language. We must do our best to Gaelicise the places around the districts where Irish is still spoken.’
At a meeting of the Ard Fheis a resolution was proposed by the Lord Mayor of Cork requesting Dail Eireann [to ensure that] every public board would transact all their business in Irish and that the employees of a public board should be given two years to learn Irish.
The resolution was passed.
The following were elected to represent Ulster at the Executive Committee: Fr Donal O’Tuathail, Sean O’Bradaigh, [Fr] P MacGlinchey and C O’Neill.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: DE VALERA, like Pearse, Collins and Eoin MacNeill, was a child of the Gaelic Revival.
His decision to join the Gaelic League, whose aim was to re-establish Irish as the spoken language, marked his first step towards a political career.
Founded in 1893 by Eoin MacNeill from Glenarm and Douglas Hyde, a Roscommon rector’s son, the League, while initially non-political and non-sectarian, helped to create the atmosphere for a more militant nationalism.
The Belfast branch was established on the Beersbridge Road in 1895 in the home of PT McGinley, a customs official from Donegal.
Many middle-class Protestants joined, including its first Belfast chairman, Dr John St Clair Boyd, a surgeon in the Samaritan Hospital.
Almost immediately the Dáil came under pressure from the League to make Irish compulsory for the public service and teaching posts.
Among the Ulster representatives on the League executive were Fr Peadar McGlinchey, a Derry priest, and Fr Dan Toal from Belfast.)
On This Day – 5th August 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.