A letter I wonder how many have read.

At the founding of the Association the following letter was received
from the Most Rev. T. W. Croke, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly:
The Palace, Thurles,
December 18th, 1884
My Dear Sir - I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
inviting me to become a patron of the Celtic Athletic Association,
of which you are it appears, the Hon. Secretary. I accede
to your request with the utmost pleasure.
One of the most painful, let me assure you, and at the same time,
one of the most frequently recurring, reflections that, as an Irishman,
I am compelled to make in connection with the present aspect
of things in this country, is derived from the ugly and irritating fact,
that we are daily importing from England, not only her manufactured
goods, which we cannot help doing, since she has practically
strangled our own manufacturing appliances, but, together with her
fashions, her accents, her vicious literature, her music, her dances
and her manifold mannerisms, her games also, and her pastimes, to
the utter discredit of our own grand national sports, and to the sore
humiliation, as I believe, of every genuine son and daughter of the
old land.
Ball-playing, hurling, football-kicking according to Irish rules,
‘casting,’ leaping in various ways, wrestling, handy-grips, top-pegging,
leap-frog, rounders, tip-in-the hat, and all such favourite exercises
and amusements amongst men and boys may now be said to
be not only dead and buried, but in several localities to be entirely
forgotten and unknown. And what have we got in their stead? We
have got such foreign and fantastic field sports as lawn tennis, polo,
croquet, cricket, and the like - very excellent, I believe, and healthgiving
exercises in their way, still not racy of the soil, but rather
alien, on the contrary, to it, as are indeed, for the most part, the
men and women who first imported, and still continue to patronise
them.
And, unfortunately, it is not our national sports alone that are
held in dishonour and are dying out, but even our most suggestive
national celebrations are being gradually effaced and extinguished,
one after another as well. Who hears now of snap-apple night, pancake
night, or bon-fire night? They are all things of the past, too
vulgar to be spoken of except in ridicule by the degenerate dandies
of the day. No doubt, there is something rather pleasing to the eye
in the get-up of a modern man, who arrayed in light attire, with
parti-coloured cap on and a racquet in hand, making his way, with
or without a companion, to the tennis ground. But for my part, I
should vastly prefer to behold, or think of, the youthful athletes
whom I used to see in my early days at fair and pattern, bereft of
shoes and coat, and thus prepared to play at handball, to fly over
any number of horses, to throw the ‘sledge’, or ‘winding- stone’, and
to test each other’s metal and activity by the trying ordeal of ‘three
leaps’, or a ‘hop, step and jump’.
Indeed if we continue travelling for the next score years in the
same direction that we have been going in for some time past,
condemning the sports that were practised by our forefathers, effacing
our national features as though we were ashamed of them,
and putting on, with England’s stuffs and broadcloths, her masher
habits and such other effeminate follies as she may recommend, we
had better at once, and publicly, abjure our nationality, clap hands
for joy at sight of the Union Jack, and place ‘England’s bloody red’
exultantly above the green.
Deprecating as I do any such dire and disgraceful consummation,
and seeing in your society of athletes something altogether opposing
to it, I shall be happy to do all for it that I can, and authorise
you now formally to place my name on the roll of your patrons.
In conclusion, I earnestly hope that our national journals will
not disdain in future to give suitable notices of these Irish sports and
pastimes which your Society means to patronise and promote, and
that the masters and pupils of our Irish Colleges will not henceforth
exclude from their athletic programmes such manly exercises as I
have just referred to and commemorated.
I remain, my dear Sir,
Your very faithful servant,
T. W. CROKE,
Archbishop of Cashel.
To: Mr. Michael Cusack.
Hon. Sec. of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Hadn't seen that before J - very interesting read. In a lot of it he could have written it yesterday and it would still be accurate.

Bullet points please, Kerry Katriona has very busy lives to lead!

mossbags wrote:Bullet points please, Kerry Katriona has very busy lives to lead!

What are you sh1ting about now Bags of Moss??

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

mossbags wrote:Bullet points please, Kerry Katriona has very busy lives to lead!

What are you sh1ting about now Bags of Moss??

Why you so grumpy this weather Clux of Jay??

Dunno man .......... dunno ....

mossbags wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

mossbags wrote:Bullet points please, Kerry Katriona has very busy lives to lead!

What are you sh1ting about now Bags of Moss??

Why you so grumpy this weather Clux of Jay??

Maybe 3inarow08s travel log is getting to him?!?!

Super stuff Jim. Hadn't seen it before. Full of passion.

On a side note, I love the way the letter was written. Long rambling sentences and lovely expressive language. I love reading books written in the 19th and 20th centuries.

RMDrive wrote:Super stuff Jim. Hadn't seen it before. Full of passion.

On a side note, I love the way the letter was written. Long rambling sentences and lovely expressive language. I love reading books written in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I am not sure that long rambling and flowery sentences are the way to go to keep the mind of the reader concentrated on the subejct matter of the novel which is in effect the whole purpose of writing the book and thus the loss of the pathos of the storyline may well render understanding of the plot and enjoyment of the book untenable thereby defeating the ultimate aim when first deciding to commit one's thoughts to paper .....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

RMDrive wrote:Super stuff Jim. Hadn't seen it before. Full of passion.

On a side note, I love the way the letter was written. Long rambling sentences and lovely expressive language. I love reading books written in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I am not sure that long rambling and flowery sentences are the way to go to keep the mind of the reader concentrated on the subejct matter of the novel which is in effect the whole purpose of writing the book and thus the loss of the pathos of the storyline may well render understanding of the plot and enjoyment of the book untenable thereby defeating the ultimate aim when first deciding to commit one's thoughts to paper .....

you should of been on the pulpit fr Jc instead of in a pulpit on a friday night (with pints on hand)

JimWexford wrote:you should of been on the pulpit fr Jc instead of in a pulpit on a friday night (with pints on hand)

Nah Jim - I think if I was there'd be a mass exodus!!!

You "star" in a mass exodus of blue every year around August

JimWexford wrote:You "star" in a mass exodus of blue every year around August

Ah you've seen my movies then ..............

RMDrive wrote:. I love reading books written in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I'd recommend an old tome called "The Bible" RMD...plenty ancient and quare words like pestilence, Saddam and Begorrah...