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BRIEL SKETCH

OF VARIOUS ATTEMPTS WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE TO DIFFUSE
A KNOWLEDGE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,

THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF

The Irish Language.

Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the Voice, I shall be unto
him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian
1 Cor. xiv. 11.

unto me.

Dublin:

PRINTED BY GRAISBERRY AND CAMPBELL, 10, BACK-LANE.

1818.

141. j. 220.

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BRIEF SKETCH, &c.

THERE is nothing, perhaps, which more remarkably, and it scarcely need be added, more gloriously characterizes the present era, than that desire of diffusing religious information which so remarkably prevails. With a view to this object, translations of the Scriptures have been multiplied abroad, and increased circulation has been given to the Words of Life at home; and yet, is it not a melancholy singularity, a most affecting anomaly, that while our efforts in this truly interesting cause have been directed to almost every other part of the world, we should have so entirely overlooked that part of the population of this country which uses exclusively the Irish tongue, or is at least incapable of receiving moral or religious instruction through any other medium; a people so nearly connected with us, living as it were at our very doors, breathing the same air, and

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governed by the same laws? It may indeed be said, that public attention has but recently been directed to the peculiar situation of this class of the community; and of those more actively engaged in the dissemination of the Scriptures, that few have been so situated as to be capable of ascertaining their spiritual wants. It might therefore be expected, that, in order to obtain a hearty co-operation on their behalf, nothing more would be necessary than simply to state the vast proportion of the people so circumstanced; and that a general and ardent desire would at once be excited among all who appreciate the advantages of religion, to put into their hands the Holy Scriptures, and to enable them to read, in their vernacular tongue, the Words of Life. Unfortunately, however, experience does not here keep pace with expectation; and some, even of those who are warm advocates for giving the widest possible extension to the principles of Christianity, have questioned the expediency of employing the Irish language for that purpose. As this reluctance on the part of such men must arise from a want of full information, or of just views upon the subject, it will be necessary to enter into the question more fully, to meet objections, to propose arguments, and to bring forward facts. It may not, however, be uninteresting first to take a short view of what has already been done in this respect.

Judging from what was the practice in the earlier ages of Christianity, we might naturally imagine that the Irish, after their conversion from Paganism, would not long remain without a version of the Scriptures in their own tongue; and what in a manner confirms this supposition, is the statement of the venerable Bede, who informs us, that in his time (that is, little more than 200 years after the period usually assigned for the introduction of Christianity into this island) the Bible was read in Great Britain in five dialects then vulgarly used, those of the Angles, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts and the Latins.* The close connexion which prevailed between Ireland and the country now called Scotland, makes it highly probable that the version used by the natives of North Britain, was also in use among those of this island. The little intercourse too between the Irish Church and that of Rome, whose interference and controul the former so long resisted, renders it unlikely that the services were performed at that period in the Latin tongue. But no traces of the version which, according to Bede, did exist in that tongue, now remain, either in Scotland or Ireland. Thus we find Bishop Carsuel com

* Bede, Hist. Eccles. Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 41. fol. Cantab. 1722.

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