beautiful.




CHAPTER IX

THE FRONTIER


I


Our frontier is twofold, the language and the sea. For the majesty of
our encircling waters we have no need to raise a plea, but to give God
thanks for setting so certain a seal on our individual existence and
giving us in the spreading horizon of the ocean some symbol of our
illimitable destiny. For the language there is something still to be
said; there are some ideas gaining currency that should be
challenged--the cold denial of some that the unqualified name Irish be
given to the literature of Irishman that is passionate with Irish
enthusiasm and loyalty to Ireland, yet from the exigencies of the time
had to be written in English; the view not only assumed but asserted by
some of the Gael that the Gall may be recognised only if he take second
place; the aloofness of many of the Gall, not troubling to understand
their rights and duties; the ignoring on both sides of the fine
significance of the name Irishman, of a spirit of patriotism and a
deep-lying basis of authority and justice that will give stability to
the state and secure its future against any upheaval that from the
unrest of the time would seem to threaten the world.