Douglas Hyde (‘An Craoibhín Aoibhinn’)
Source: Wikipedia
Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as first President of Ireland seventy five years ago, on 26 June 1938. Born near Castlerea, co. Roscommon, in 1860, his early years were spent at Kilmactranny, co. Sligo, where his father was rector. In 1867 the family moved to Frenchpark, co. Roscommon. Educated at home, he began to learn Irish from local native speakers. Unlike his predecessors, Hyde chose not to pursue a career in the Church of Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he became fluent in several languages.
Hyde’s passion for the Irish language, in severe decline and regarded as old-fashioned by many, remained undinted, and in 1880 he joined the Gaelic Union, an offshoot of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language. He published poems in Irish under the pen name, ‘An Craoibhín Aoibhinn’ (‘The Pleasant Little Branch’), and essays and books concerning the language and folklore of Ireland established his reputation as a scholar of Irish.
In 1892 he helped establish the Gaelic Journal, and was elected president of the recently formed National Literary Society in Dublin, delivering an influential address, ‘On the necessity for de-Anglicising the Irish people’. He was founder and president of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), established in 1893 to preserve and promote Irish language and culture.
Irish folk tales compiled by Douglas Hyde and translated into Welsh by Thomas Jones
Hyde bequeathed his papers to NUI Galway. However, letters from him can be found in some collections here at the Library. Amidst the correspondence of the Celtic scholar Sir John Rhŷs are thirteen letters, signed ‘An Craoibhín’, written between 1897 and 1910, which reflect his concern and passion for the Irish language. A keen recorder and translator of oral material, Hyde enthusiastically assists Rhŷs with his research of native folklore, Irish, and Ogham inscriptions, enlisting the help of others, among them the dramatist and folklorist Lady Augusta Gregory.
In 1899, when the Palles Commission on Intermediate Education considered the teaching of Irish, he appealed for support from beyond Ireland in the face of the “tremendously strong and bold” evidence put forward by J. P. Mahaffy and Robert Atkinson that Irish should not be taught in schools. His growing frustration is evident in letters sent to Rhŷs in January 1899:
20 January 1899
I am half ashamed to trouble you with another letter, but the matter is very important. A dead set is being made against the inclusion of the Irish language on the Intermediate Programme . . . but it will be believed by the Commissioners if no counter evidence is offered . . . Would it be too much trouble to ask you for an expression of your opinion
1. on the suitability of Irish as a subject of study for Irish boys.
2. on the value of Irish literature as literature. Is it silly or indecent where it is not religious?
Everyone belonging to Trinity College is straining every nerve to get rid of Irish, its ghost haunts them. We of the Gaelic League look to Oxford. I am to give evidence on behalf of the Gaelic League, and an expression of opinion from you would enormously strengthen my hands . . . I know what is being done on the Welsh Intermediate for Welsh
31 January 1899
. . . It is now freely alleged against us that modern Irish is a miserable ragged dialect, with a crude unformed syntax, not worth anyones’ while to study. Do you really believe this? If you do not, could you not say something on the point? . . . the case is one of the deepest importance. Believe me, if it were not, I would not trouble you. Not only is our language threatened with extinction (so far as Commissions can do it) but threatened to be buried under a mass of obloquy and contempt as well.
Letters from Douglas Hyde (Sir John Rhŷs Papers, A1)
Hyde was appointed to the Royal Commission on University Education in 1906, and campaigned successfully for Irish as a compulsory matriculation subject for the new national university; he was appointed first Professor of Modern Irish at University College, Dublin, in 1908. When attempts to avoid divisive separatist politics proved unsustainable, he resigned as president of the Gaelic League in 1915. Hyde retired from his university post in 1932, but following the new constitution in 1937, he was elected, a non-partisan candidate, as first President of Ireland, from 1938 to 1945. A passionate advocate of the Irish language and culture, and influential figure in the Irish revival movement, Douglas Hyde died on 12 July 1949, and his body was returned to co. Roscommon.
Siân Bowyer