Early in May the Irish. Independent announced that the Senate
of the new National University had given way on the subject of compulsory Irish. The Board of Studies reported that no subject should be compulsory at matriculation, and that it would be sufficient for a student to pass in five subjects selected from the programme, but recom- mended that if Irish were not taken at the matriculation, the student should attend, during his undergraduate course, the lectures in Irish language, literature, and history, and satisfy the Professors in those' subjects of his knowledge of them. This recommendation gave rise to a long debate, in which its adoption was opposed by the Roman Catholic Arch- bishop of Tuam, Dr. Healy—himself a distinguished Irish scholar—Chief Baron Panes, Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., Sir Christopher Nixon, and Rev. W. Delany, S.J., on the sound principle that a student should not be compelled to attend any particular course of lectures. Archbishop Walsh, who presided, apparently voted the other way, and we read in the Irish Independent that Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., " made an effective speech, asking the Senate to comply with the proposals put forward by the County Councils, who were willing to strike a rate in aid of education in the University." This argument proved irresistible, and the recommendation was carried. Dr. Douglas Hyde then proposed that Irish should be compulsory for matriculation in 1913, but the motion was postponed for the consideration of the Board of Studies. They have now reported, and the Senate have this week passed Dr. Douglas Hyde's motion.
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