I hope I shall not be regarded as entirely out of order if I do not follow Deputy O'Kelly into a minute consideration of the virtues and vices of Trinity College, and if I address myself rather to the cognate, if somewhat remote subject of the Legal Practitioners (Qualification) Bill. On the Second Reading I expressed some doubts as to the efficacy of this measure. I did not vote upon it because, unlike most people, I find that I have not got my opinions ready-made before I see a measure and before I consider it. Since that time I have been giving a good deal of thought to it, and I am bound to say quite frankly that my feelings about it have become rather more hostile than less. Now I want to look at it for a moment, if the House will allow me, from a double point of view; from the point of view of the two sets of people who are more directly and immediately concerned; from the point of view of the litigants and from the point of view of their professional advisers. First of all from the point of view of the litigants, I, like my good friend and colleague in the representation of County Donegal, Deputy MacFadden, who I think is the seconder of the Bill, have within my area, and very near to my own home, a very considerable number of true Irish speakers, that is, people to whom Irish is not merely an acquirement or a language occasionally used by them but is the natural, real home language. One of the matters which has weighed with me favourably to the Bill is that I do think, in so far as such people, although they may know English, all speak and express themselves much more naturally and easily in Irish, it is a hardship if they do in fact find any difficulty, when they are so unwise or so unfortunate as to engage in legal proceedings, in obtaining the services of legal advisers who are able to consult, speak, examine and deal with them in the tongue with which they are most familiar, and in which they are most at home. But I have made some inquiries—I am quite prepared to admit that my research has not been very thorough and there may be evidence which I have not yet come across—and I have not yet heard of any cases in which these people—they are, as I say, probably wise enough not to resort to the courts frequently —complain of being unable to find suitable persons to represent them professionally who have got this qualification. I am told on the contrary, and I believe it is true, that whether you are dealing with the solicitors profession, or whether you are dealing with the profession of the Bar, there is no dearth at all of persons who are themselves Irish speakers, or who have made probably a much more thorough study of the language than anyone is likely to make under compulsion, and who are therefore as well qualified as anyone is likely to be under this Bill to deal with whatever small number of cases there may be in which that matter arises.
I am open to conviction on that point. On the other hand, there is the other profession. I do not suggest that this ought to be an overwhelming consideration, but I do not think that there is any serious doubt that the great bulk of opinion in the two professions concerned is opposed to this Bill. Quite possibly that may be wrong. National interests are supreme, but I do suggest that the Oireachtas ought to be very slow before it disregards altogether too cavalierly the opinion of these two great professions. So far, the House will observe, I am somewhat undecided. I am less able to come to a definite decision, because, I venture to suggest, this question hangs on a much larger question, and that larger question this Dáil is quite incompetent to decide. That larger question is this: Is Ireland, five years hence, ten years hence, going to be, in fact, an Irish-speaking country? We cannot possibly tell. We cannot possibly know. Not only we in the Dáil, but the people of our age throughout the country cannot possibly tell. There is one class or body of persons who will decide that question without any reference to us and without any thought of us, and those are the children who are to-day in our primary and secondary schools, and who will be there during the next generation of school children. They, and they only, will decide whether this country is going to be an Irish-speaking country or not. Nobody can tell what they are going to do. I confess that I do not know.
When these children come out of the schools are they going to do what I am afraid a great many of us did with our classics, even when we enjoyed them, and say, "Now, that is done," and, in fact, think of them no more? If so, it does not really matter in the least what we decide upon in this or similar Bills, because in fact, the language will be quite useless. Will those children, on the other hand, regard it as their most cherished possession? Will they determine that whatever else they may forget they will not forget the language, and whatever else they may be careless in they will cherish the language as their dearest possession? No one knows. Until we know no one can say what the effect of this measure will be. Being of a conservative turn of mind, I confess that when we are in doubt and when we are taking a leap in the dark I like to remain on comparatively firm ground. I do not think that I should have spoken at all to-day but for one consideration. When men whom I know to be good patriots and good Irishmen are assailed, as people have been assailed here, when they are publicly held up to execration as anti-Irishmen, as hostile to Ireland and as bad citizens, then I must say that my instinct is to go to their side.
I do not think that I ever heard anything more regrettable than some of the speeches delivered by advocates of the Bill. Deputy Mullins on the last occasion said that if it were necessary to re-impose the penal laws in order to re-establish the Irish language then the penal laws, or something like them, ought to be reestablished. As this matter goes far beyond the scope of this particular Bill, I would ask the Dáil to consider whether the penal laws against religion in the 18th century were so successful in their operation as to make it at all wise for us to take them as an example. Is it a fact that the penal laws directed against the Catholic religion in the 18th century routed out that religion in this country? Is it a fact that they endeared the Establishment to the Irish people? I am quite certain of one thing, and that is that it is not by compulsion, it is not by penal laws, it is not by the methods of the jackboot that you are going to endear the Irish language to any section of our people. It is not by such methods you are going to make Ireland again what nobody can say it is to-day, an Irish-speaking country.
