Gaelic League

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Gaelic League. Founded in Ireland in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as first president. The intention was to revive the Irish language. Ostensibly non-political, the League inevitably attracted Irish nationalists. Patrick Pearse insisted in 1913 that membership of the League ‘ought to have been a preparation for our complete living as Irish nationalists’. The work of the League ensured that Gaelic was declared the national language in 1922 and Douglas Hyde became first president of Eire in 1938. But the decline in the number of Gaelic speakers continued.

J. A. Cannon

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