http://www.ogmios.org/41.htm

...O'Connell not only lifted the people's hopes high, he poisoned their roots by denigrating the Irish-Gaelic culture that nourished their very identity. Why did he do that? The first in so many things, O'Connell was one of the first great PR mavens. His speeches in English in a largely Irish-speaking Ireland were not for Irish ears, but English newspapers. O'Connell's achievements were really public relation victories for English public and political opinion. They were not really political victories for Ireland. That's why he was so successful. That's why he failed so miserably...

That is interesting. For all the good that O'Connell did, he ended up going against the language of the people he intended to help. I wonder if he had known that the language would suffer so heavily, would he have changed his attitude toward it or would he have seen that as all part of "progress".

Beir bua agus beannacht

probably "progress" or at least needed sacrifice. those who criticize the RCC for not doing more for the language are seeing the same mechanisms at work.

The choice they saw was; civil rights while speaking english, or poverty and persecution while speaking irish.

we must be careful not to judge our predecessors while looking through our 21st century eyes.