A eagarthoir, a chara, - Many people, I believe, have a guilty conscience about Irish. Just look at all the excuses they conjure up for their lack of it. They are not prepared to support a serious effort to restore Irish, but they have, all the same, an uncomfortable suspicion that the Gaelic League - is right in maintaining that, without the restoration of Irish, there can be no significant and distinctive Irish national identity, and hence that Irish political independence (whether of the 2 or 32 county variety) is devoid of meaning.
The dice are already so heavily loaded against Ireland in its relationship to England, in terms alike of geography, history, wealth, industrial development, population etc, that when, on top of all this, Ireland discards its ancestral language in favour of English, with all that this implies in terms of the influence of the mass media, the progressive assimilation of Ireland to England inevitably follows. The result is what we have today - an Ireland which is British in everything but name.
It is a state of affairs which many Irish people are reluctant to recognise. Since we lack sufficient national self esteem to restore our ancestral language, we can only avert our eyes from the reality and seek - refuge in pretence and self-deceit. Yours, etc.,
Baile an Teampaill,
Baile Atha Cliath 14.