Abstract
This chapter reveals a hidden history of knowledge of European languages in nineteenth-century Ireland. Studies of language in this period have focused exclusively on the relationship between the English and the Irish languages; this chapter provides a more complete picture of languages in Ireland and their functions in society. It pays particular attention to the place of European languages in the educational system and examines the links between travel, religion and translation in the diffusion of multilingual literacies. It also questions the impact of polyglot abilities on individuals and on Irish society.
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Notes
- 1.
The College authorities defended their commitment to the study of modern languages and drew attention to the premiums they awarded for proficiency in modern languages. The lack of instruction in the previous years was, they claimed, not due to a failing on their part, rather it was due to the age of the professor who was unable to discharge the duties of his situation (Freeman’s Journal, 30 October 1838).
- 2.
- 3.
The board also said that if a student’s tastes ‘or his probable mode of life turn him to Modern Languages then he must learn French and German thoroughly, and the Board considers that a knowledge of the tongues of the two most important Modern Continental Nations may be considered equivalent in Education to an acquaintance with the language of Ancient Greece’ (O’Neill 1999, 360).
- 4.
A lecturer in Italian, Augusto Cesare Marani was one of the original appointments at the Catholic University. He also taught Spanish. See Barr (2003, 209). The efforts of the pioneering professors in universities in Ireland ensured that modern languages and the literatures of European countries were to become a fixed part of students’ university experience. Most professors were from continental Europe—some were exiles such as the professor of Italian in Trinity Evasio Antioco Radice, an Italian patriot who was appointed in 1824 (Lonergan 2006). In her article, Lonergan also details the high-profile court case and subsequent media coverage in 1856 over the appointment to the chair of Italian and French in Trinity College Dublin of Basilio Angeli, a stucco maker whose suitability for the post was challenged in court (16–19).
- 5.
It is important to note, however, that a few years later, when arguing for the promotion of the Irish language, Davis seemed to perceive Irish to be in competition with European languages. He said that ‘[w]hat we seek is, that the people of the upper classes should have their children taught the language which explains our names of persons or places, our older history, and our music, and which is spoken in the majority of our counties, rather than Italian, German or French. It would be more useful in life, more serviceable to the taste and genius of young people, and a more flexible accomplishment for an Irish man or woman to speak, sing, and write Irish than French’ (Davis 1914/1843, 105).
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Reports into schools noted pupils’ proficiency in and exposure to French (Fahey 1987, 21).
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Parkes says, however, that English, Latin and Greek each carried 1000 marks, modern languages carried 700 marks, mathematics 500 and sciences 400 each. Music and drawing carried 500 marks each (Parkes 2007, 83).
- 8.
Cullen to Hugh Cullen, 22 January 1821, in MacSuibhne (1961, 1.78)
- 9.
For example, one student James Wood wrote that Cullen obtained a master in Latin and Italian for him so that he could study those languages. James Wood to John Baptist Purcell, 26 February 1838, II-4-g A.L.S. http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/author.pl?cal1838.htm+Wood
- 10.
Letter from Maria Josepha Holroyd Stanley, Baroness of Alderley to Serena Holroyd, April, 1786, in Adeane (1896, 399).
- 11.
See, for example, the advertisements for Archer and Wirling (Belfast Newsletter, 22 February 1810); the catalogues of William Curry and Co., Dublin; H. Fitzpatrick; and W.B. Kelly’s catalogues which featured many continental books in their original languages, for example, French books by Bossuet, Fénelon, Voltaire and Vertot.
- 12.
- 13.
Not all were happy with the curriculum: a past pupil of St Louis boarding school in Monaghan, which conducted much of its affairs in French, expressed dissatisfaction later in life with the education she received, stating that it was out of touch with real life (O’Connor 1987, 41).
- 14.
See, for example, some of the career paths taken by graduates of modern languages in Queens College Galway in the nineteenth century in O’Neill (1999, 305–306).
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O’Connor, A. (2017). European Languages in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. In: Translation and Language in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59852-3_2
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