SIR,--4 was not on the spot at Ardmore. Mrs, Lentaigne. who impugns my report, was not. The non-Catholic speaker was invited to speak on what women can do in rural improvement. She chose to assail the educational policy of the Government. in the presence of high Ministers, and this in the midst of a Gaelic-speaking district, Her words may he read in the Tipperary Star. The storm of letters of protest in the daily newspapers shows how the admission of this attack by Muinntir na Tire was received by the body of Catholic and national opinion.
Mrs. Lentaigne, when she writes of "compulsory Irish," begs the whole question. The revival of the historic national language and literature is the national policy, supported by all national parties, and opposed by none save those of alien allegiance. It is, moreover, already an accomplished fact in considerable measure. At the Junior session at Ardmore, all could speak Irish save a lad from England. To attack the revival, or the means by which it is being accomplished so successfully, is to attack res judicata. It is not a project, doubtfully feasible, like the revival when begun long years ago, but a living culture and national principle which the speaker opposed. We are asked to scrap the achievement of a generation and to abandon the historic Irish culture and its great literature, both so precious to Catholic civilisation, when we have saved them at last.
Twenty-five years ago, the matter was problematic. It is so no longer. No society can advance if it allows itself to be dragged back to the starting point again and again, or wastes energy in arguing over what was decided long since.
I am sorry if my report seemed discourteous, owing to extreme condensation. I repeat that the Protestant visitor's right to her own opinions is not questioned; but Muinntir na Tire is an organisation which seeks to be in step with the nation, and especially with the Catholic body. The view of the body of national and Catholic opinion must be expressed in a faithful report.
YOUR DUBLIN CORRESPONDENT,
P.S.--If people living on 300 acres of land and not tilling it—while their neighbours subsist on 5-acre holdings—are not ranchers, what are they?