THE FRONTIER
I
Our frontier is twofold, the language and the sea. For the majesty of
our encircling waters we have no need to raise a plea, but to give God
thanks for setting so certain a seal on our individual existence and
giving us in the spreading horizon of the ocean some symbol of our
illimitable destiny. For the language there is something still to be
said; there are some ideas gaining currency that should be
challenged--the cold denial of some that the unqualified name Irish be
given to the literature of Irishman that is passionate with Irish
enthusiasm and loyalty to Ireland, yet from the exigencies of the time
had to be written in English; the view not only assumed but asserted by
some of the Gael that the Gall may be recognised only if he take second
place; the aloofness of many of the Gall, not troubling to understand
their rights and duties; the ignoring on both sides of the fine
significance of the name Irishman, of a spirit of patriotism and a
deep-lying basis of authority and justice that will give stability to
the state and secure its future against any upheaval that from the
unrest of the time would seem to threaten the world.
II
Consider first the literature of Irishmen in English. From the attitude
commonly taken on the question of literary values, it is clear that the
primary significance of expression in writing is often lost. What is
said, and the purpose for which it is said, take precedence of the
medium through which it is said. But from our national awakening to the
significance of the medium so long ignored we have grown so excited that
we frequently forget the greater significance of the thing. The
utterance of the man is of first importance, and, where his utterance
has weight, the vital need is to secure it through some medium, the
medium becoming important when one more than another is found to have a
wider and more intimate appeal; and then we do well to become insistent
for a particular medium when it is in anxiety for full delivery of the
writer's thought and a wide knowledge of its truth. But we are losing
sight of this natural order of things. It is well, then, the unconvinced
Gall should hear why he should accept the Irish language; not simply to
defer to the Gael, but to quicken the mind and defend the territory of
what is now the common country of the Gael and Gall. Davis caught up the
great significance of the language when he said: "Tis a surer barrier,
and more important frontier, than fortress or river." The language is at
once our frontier and our first fortress, and behind it all Irishmen
should stand, not because a particular branch of our people evolved it,
but because it is the common heritage of all. One who has a knowledge of
Irish can easily get evidence of its quickening power on the Irish mind.
Travel in an Irish-speaking district and hail one of its old people in
English, and you get in response a dull "Good-day, Sir." Salute him in
Irish and you touch a secret spring. The dull eyes light up, the face
is all animation, the body alert, and for a dull "good-day," you get
warm benedictions, lively sallies, and after you, as you pass on your
road, a flood of rich and racy Irish comes pouring down the wind. That
is the secret power of the language. It makes the old men proud of their
youth and gives to the young quickened faculties, an awakened
imagination and a world to conquer. This is no exaggeration. It is not
always obvious, because we do not touch the secret spring nor wander
near the magic. But the truth is there to find for him who cares to
search. You discover behind the dullness of a provincial town a bright
centre of interest, and when you study the circle you know that here is
some wonderful thing: priests, doctors, lawyers, teachers, tradesmen,
clerks--all drawn together, young and old, both sexes, all enthusiasts.
Sometimes a priest is teaching a smith, sometimes the smith is teaching
the priest: for a moment at least we have unconsciously levelled
barriers and there is jubilation in the natural life re-born. Out of
that quickened life and consciousness rises a vivid imagination with a
rush of thought and a power of expression that gives the nation a new
literature. That is the justification of the language. It awakens and
draws to expression minds that would otherwise be blank. It is not that
the revelation of Davis is of less value than we think, but that through
the medium of Irish other revelations will be won that would otherwise
be lost. Again, in subtle ways we cannot wholly understand, it gives the
Irish mind a defence against every other mind, taking in comradeship
whatever good the others have to offer, while retaining its own power
and place. The Irish mind can do itself justice only in Irish. But still
some ardent and faithful spirits broke through every difficulty of time
and circumstance and found expression in English, and we have the
treasures of Davis, Mitchel, and Mangan; yet, the majority remained
cold, and now, to quicken the mass, we turn to the old language. But
this is not to decry what was won in other fields. In the widening
future that beckons to us, we shall, if anything, give greater praise to
these good fighters and enthusiasts, who in darker years, even with the
language of the enemy, resisted his march and held the gap for Ireland.
III
On this ground the Gael and Gall stand on footing of equality. That is
the point many on both sides miss and we need to emphasise it. Some
Irishmen not of Gaelic stock speak of Irish as foreign to them, and
would maintain English in the principal place now and in the future. We
do well then to make clear to such a one that he is asked to adopt the
language for Ireland's sake as a nation and for his own sake as a
citizen. If he wishes to serve her he must stand for the language; if he
prefers English civilisation he should go back to England. There only
can he develop on English lines. An Irishman in Ireland with an English
mind is a queer contradiction, who can serve neither Ireland nor England
in any good sense, and both Ireland and England disown him. So the
Irishman of other than Gaelic ancestors should stand in with us, not
accepting something disagreeable as inevitable, but claiming a right by
birth and citizenship, joining the fine army of the nation for a brave
adventurous future, full of fine possibility and guaranteed by a fine
comradeship--owning a land not of flattery and favouritism, but of
freedom and manhood. This saving ideal has been often obscured by our
sundering class names. This is why we would substitute as common for all
the fine name of Irishman.
IV
But in asking all parties to accept the common name of Irishman, we find
a fear rather suggested than declared--that men may be asked in this
name to put by something they hold as a great principle of Life; that
Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter will all be asked to find agreement
in a fourth alternative, in which they will not submit to one another
but will all equally belie themselves. There is such a hidden fear, and
we should have it out and dispose of it. The best men of all parties
will have no truck with this and they are right. But on what ground,
then, shall we find agreement, the recognition of which Irish
Citizenship implies? On this, that the man of whatever sincere
principles, religious or civic, counts among his great duties his duty
as citizen; and he defends his creed because he believes it to be a safe
guide to the fulfilling of all duties, this including. When, therefore,
we ask him to stand in as Irish Citizen, it is not that he is to abandon
in one iota his sincere principles, but that he is to give us proof of
his sincerity. He tells us his creed requires him to be a good citizen:
we give him a fine field in which he can be to us a fine example.
V
In further consideration of this we should put by the thought of finding
a mere working agreement. There is a deep-lying basis of authority and
justice to seek, which it should be our highest aim to discover. Modern
governments concede justice to those who can compel justice--even the
democracy requires that you be strong enough to formulate a claim and
sustain it; but this is the way of tyranny. A perfect government should
seek, while careful to develop its stronger forces and keep them in
perfect balance, to consider also the claims of those less powerful but
not less true. A government that over-rides the weak because it is safe,
is a tyranny, and tyranny is in seed in the democratic governments of
our time. We must consider this well, for it is pressing and grave; and
we must get men to come together as citizens to defend the rights as
well of the unit which is unsupported as of the party that commands
great power. So shall we give steadiness and fervour to our growing
strength by balancing it with truth and justice: so shall we found a
government that excesses cannot undermine nor tyranny destroy.
VI
We have to consider, in conclusion, the unrest in the world, the war of
parties and classes, and the need of judging the tendencies of the time
to set our steps aright. With the wars and rumours of wars that threaten
the great nations from without and the wild upheavals that threaten them
within, it would be foolish to hide from ourselves the drift of events.
We must decide our attitude; and if it is too much to hope that we may
keep clear of the upheavals, we should aim at strengthening ourselves
against the coming crash. We cannot set the world right, but we can go a
long way to setting things in our own land right, by making through a
common patriotism a united people. What if we are held up occasionally
by the cold cries shot at every high aim--"dreamer--Utopia"; cry this
in return: no vision of the dreamer can be more wild than the frantic
make-shifts of the Great Powers to vie in armaments with one another or
repress internal revolts. Consider England in the late strike that
paralysed her. It was only suspended by a step that merely deferred the
struggle; the strife is again threatening. All the powers are so
threatened and their efforts to defer the hour are equally feverish and
fruitless; for the hour is pressing and may flash on the world when 'tis
least prepared. Let who will deride us, but let us prepare. We may not
guide our steps with the certainty of prophets, nor hope by our
beautiful schemes to make a perfect state; but we can only come near to
perfection in the light of a perfect ideal, and however far below it we
may remain, we can at least, under its inspiration, reach an existence
rational and human: our justification for a brave effort lies in that
the governments of this time are neither one nor the other. He who
thinks Ireland's struggle to express her own mind, to give utterance to
her own tongue, to stand behind her own frontier, is but a sentiment
will be surprised to find it leads him to this point. Herein is the
justification and the strength of the movement. Men are deriding things
around them, of the significance of which they have not the remotest
idea. Ireland is calling her children to a common banner, to the defence
of her frontier, to the building up of a national life, harmonious and
beautiful--a conception of citizenship, from which a right is conceded,
not because it can be compelled, but because it is just: to the
foundation of a state that will by its defence of the least powerful
prove all powerful, that will be strong because true, beautiful because
free, full of the music of her olden speech and caught by the magic of
her encircling sea.