BOYCOTTING
12
BOYCOTTING
He was ordained on 25 March, 1858, at Tuam by Arch-
bishop MacHale. While a student at Maynooth he
wrote the "College Irish Grammar" for his fellow
students in that college and the students of the then
recently founded Catholic University of Ireland. On
leaving Maynooth he was appointed Professor of Irish,
logic, and humanities at St. Jarlath's College, which
subjects he continued to teach there from 1859 to 1877.
He was President of St. Jarlath's from 1865 to 1877;
was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in
1866; and was made a canon of the Cathedral of
Tuam in 1872. During his stay at St. Jarlath's he
acted for some time as private secretary to Archbishop
MacHale. He was a member of the Society for the
Preservation of the Irish Language, but seceded from
it with its original founders, and in March, 1880,
established the Gaehc Union, which afterwards devel-
oped into the Gaelic League. In 1878 he was named
Parish Priest of Kilcolman (Claremorris). He was
one of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into
the alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Knock,
Co. Mayo, 1879. Canon Bourke died at Castlebar,
and was buried at Bearnacarrol, 25 Nov., 1887.
His wTitings are as follows: —
"The College Irish Grammar" (Dublin, first edi- tion, 1856; fifth edition, 1868); "Easy Lessons or Self-instruction in Irish", which appeared first in "The Nation", and was reprinted in book form (Dublin, I860), and which went through seven or eight editions during the lifetime of the author; "The BuU IneffabiUs Deus" (The Definition of the Immaculate Conception) in four languages, Latin, Irish, French, and English, printed in parallel columns (Dublin, 1868), containing a dissertation on the art of illuminating in the past and present; "The Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language, con- taining Essays on the Round Towers, Brehon Laws, etc." (London, 1875; 2nd edition, 1876). In this work he defends the pagan origin of the Round Towers of Ireland; " Seventeen sermons in Irish Gaehc by the Most Rev. James O'Gallagher, Bishop of Raphoe (1725-1737) and of Kildare (1737-1752), with an Eng- lish translation and an Irish-EngUsh vocabulary" (edited, DubUn, 1877). This work contains a life of the bishop and an interesting account of the arrest and killing of the Rev. O'Hegarty, P. P. of Killygarran, 1734. "The Life and Laboui's of St. Augustin, Bishop of Hippo Regius, with an account of the Canons Regular and of the Augustinian Friars in Ireland" (Dublin, 1879); "The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Dublin, 1880); "The Dignity, Sanctity and Intercessory Power of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God" (Dublin, 1881); "The Life and Times of the Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam" (Dubhn, 1882); "Beatha Sheaghdin Mhic H6il, Airdeaspoig Thuama" (Life of John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam), edited for the Gaehc LTnion in the "Gaelic Journal",!, II (1882-1886). This Irish Life of Dr. MacHale is a different work from the English Life of the Archbishop. Nine chapters of it were WTitten before the English Life was begun, but it was never completed. Only twenty-four chapters had appeared at the time of the author's death, and they were never published in book form; " A Plea for the Evicted Ten- ants of Mayo" (Dublin, 1883), addressed to William Ewart Gladstone; " Prechristian Ireland, a treatise on Early Irish History, Ethnology, the origin of the Round Towers, etc., with the Portrait of the Author" (Dublin, 1SS7); "A Complete Irish Dictionary", on which he was cngaKed for years, but it was not coni])l<'t('d wlu'ii his last illness came. The beginning of it was published in "The Nation." In 186S Canon Bourkr (■slitl)lisheii Mir " Keltic Journal " at Manches- ter, un<lcr till' editorship of James Ronan; only nine numbers of I his p('ri<i(lical a])peared. He brought out an edition of the catechism in Irish, and in collabora-
tion with Father John Nolan and David Comyn wrote
three elementary Irish grammatical works, published
under the auspices of the Society for the Preservation
of the Irish Language. He acted as editor of "The
Last Monarch of Tara" (Dublin), and it was under
his supervision that all the Irish works of Archbishop
MacHale were published or republished. He also
wrote a " Life of St. Jarlath ", which appeared in the
"Tuam News".
Canon Bourke's works popularized the results of the philological researches of Continental scholars, such as Pictet, Bopp, Zeuss, and Ebel, and did much to keep ahve the interest of Irish studies in Ireland. His "Easy Lessons" and "College Irish Grammar" are in some respects still the most complete hand- books of Modern Irish. Though several of his theories are now antiquated, lus Enghsh works, written in an easy flowing style, still form a popular introduction to Irish philology and archaeologj'.
Irish Catholic Directory (1860-1888); J. GIltnn], a sketch in Dublin Journal (March, 1887), republished in the Tuam News (0 May, 1887) ; Catholic Fireside (London. January, 1888) ; Free- man's Journal (23-26, Nov., 1887), and the various worka of the author, and information supplied by John Glynn, Esq., Tuam. Co. Galway.
John MacErlean.
Boycotting. — The name of boycotting was first ap- plied to a practice which had its origin in Ireland during the most stirring days of the land agitation. It was comparatively easy to arouse popular en- thusiasm, and to elicit a general readiness for self- sacrifice for a cause which touched the people so closely and so vitally. But the shghtest remissness or backsUding would be fatal to the entire project. An insignificant number who refused to abide by the common understanding would be sufficient to render all the efforts of the Land League futile. If landlords could count on finding tenants for their vacant farms, they might afford to laugh at the schemes of agita- tors. And it was inevitable that a number of "grab- bers" should appear on the scene at that time. The land hunger was always proverbially strong in Ire- land, and the opportunity of acquiring farms on easy terms was a temptation too strong to be re- sisted by ambitious self-seekers such as are to be found in all classes of society. The difficulty of dealing with "grabbers", therefore, was acute from the very commencement of the Land League. Agrarian outrages had been well-known in Ireland for some years previously and there was serious danger of a more violent and widespread outbreak now. This the leaders of the new agitation knew and feared for various reasons.
At a pubhc meeting in 1880 Parnell put the ques- tion to his audience: — "Wliat are we to do with a tenant who bids for a farm from which his neighbour has been evicted?" The more violent spirits recom- mended shooting, but Parnell himself had a proposal to offer which he rightly believed could be made far more effective. He expounded it at length, clearly, and emphatically. In substance it was, that such a person should "be left severely alone, put into a moral Coventry, isolated from his kind as if he was a leper of old ". This was the weapon which he put into the hands of the Land Leaguers, and which was destined to be used with such drastic etTect throughout the various vicissitudes of the land agitation in Ireland and to be introduced into disputes that were not agrarian and into countries other than Ireland. It is pertinent to ob.serve that from its first adoption, this severe isolation, this consignment to a moral Coventry affected not only the prime offender but equally any- one convicted of violating the common understanding of having no social intercourse with him. It was put in motion immediately against Cai)tain Boycott of Connemara, agent of Lord Erne, who sent a process server to serve ejectment notices on a number of tenants for non-payment of rent. All his servants
