I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the statement on page 118 of the recently issued special Report on educational subjects, Vol. 17, that if in Ireland some Father Mathew could initiate a high-school crusade, with something of the Danish enthusiasm, Ireland's day of prosperity would have come indeed; whether the writer of the Report has any acquaintance with educational affairs in Ireland, and in particular with the work of the Gaelic League in enthusiastically promoting the study of the language, history, and poetry of Ireland on the lines sketched out by Bishop Grundtvig in founding the Danish high schools; and can he say whether the Board of Education assumes responsibility for giving currency to a statement which deliberately ignores the existence of an Irish intellectual and educational movement.
I must refer the hon. Member to the last sentence in the Prefatory Note to the volume in question, which reads as follows:— "In this case, as always, the Board must not be taken as necessarily endorsing the opinions of the author; the responsibility for these is his, and his alone."