The beginning of the end for the Gaelic League?
Dundalk, 26 July 1915 - Fears that the Gaelic League is being torn apart by politics resurfaced this week.
In what is seen as a dramatic attempt to maintain unity in the League, Douglas Hyde appealed to members to avoid all political intrigue.
Mr. Hyde, the President of the Gaelic League, was speaking at the organisation’s great annual gathering - the Oireachtas - held in Dundalk, Co. Louth. The comments came at a meeting of the Gaelic League where the role of politics within the language movement led to bitter dispute between various personalities.
Hyde said: ‘Never, never, as long as the Gaelic League holds together, and I find myself on a platform like this, shall the pure light of the Irish language be trailed in the dust or in the mind of any one faction or party or of politics at all.’
Mr. Hyde said that above all movements existing in Ireland, the Gaelic League was a dignified movement, because it held aloft the torch of liberty and freedom. He said the League must bring everything with it in its train, the torch which was high above the storms and winds and the tossing and confusion of party politics and party factions.’
Another speaker claimed that the divisions now being manifest marked ‘the beginning of the end’ for the Gaelic League.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
