[36] "Burnocks" does not look like a real word. I have no idea what it means or it is meant for.
[37] This is a singular distortion of the story of Aoife [Eefy] and the coming of her and Cuchulain's son, Conlaoch to Erin. See above p. [300].
[38] This of course is a misapprehension.
[39] It is curious to observe that Kohl found the race of harpers by no means extinct in Ireland, and his testimony appears quite disinterested and trustworthy. "I afterwards heard," he says, "that piece (The Fairy Queen) on the pianoforte, but it did not sound half so soft and sweet as from the instrument of this blind young harper.... We were very much delighted with our harper who was certainly an accomplished artist, yet Ireland contains many of still greater ability and celebrity. The most celebrated of all, however, is a man named Byrne, blind also if I do not mistake. When, therefore, Moore sings—
"'The harp that once through Tara's hall
The soul of music shed
Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall
As if the soul were fled,'
"his lamentation must not be literally understood." He also mentions that when he was in Drogheda "a concert was in preparation to be given next week at which seven harpers, mostly blind, were to play together."
An English tourist, C. R. Wild ["Vacations in Ireland," London, 1857], mentions meeting a harper at Leenane in Connemara in 1857, who requested permission to play to him during his meal. He describes him as "an ancient man bearing a small Irish harp such as were common in olden days; ... the music produced was, for the most part, plaintive and slow, and the tones particularly soft and melodious." The priest who entertained Kohl had a number of harps in his house, but, unfortunately, the German says nothing of their size or shape. From these instances it would appear that the race of Irish harpers did not quite die out with those who assembled at Belfast at the close of the last century when Bunting secured so many of their airs, but that some lingered on till after the famine. How far these latter harpers could be regarded as the genuine descendants of the old race is doubtful.
[40] "Wenn sie unter sich sind so sprechen sie immer das naturale Irisch, aber auch das nicht mehr rein sondern mit corrumpirtem English durchwoben. Alles an diesem Volke ist Fetzenwerk, ihre Kleidung, ihre Wohnung, ihre Sprache" ("Insel der Heiligen," vol. i. p. 185. Berlin, 1860).
[41] See Vol. ii. p. 9 for this interesting conversation in which the attitude of the typical Catholic priest towards his national language is shown.
[42] In spite of the well-known opposition of the National Board the National Schoolmasters themselves as early as 1874 in their Congress unanimously passed the following resolution:—"The peasants in Irish-speaking districts have not English enough to convey their ideas, except such as relate to the mechanical business of their occupation. Hence they are not able in any degree to cultivate or impress the minds of their children (though often very intelligent themselves), who consequently grow up dull and stupid if they have been suffered to lose the Irish language or to drop out of the constant practice of it." This is exactly what I and every other spectator have found, and it means that the Board of National Education is engaged in replacing an intelligent generation of men by an utterly stupid and unintelligent one.