We're All Chumps Now

I've been thinking about what makes us English and I came across this extract earlier today:

Amongst the essentials of nationality, understood aright, none is more fundamental, none more important, none strikes deeper roots, none is more far-reaching in its results, than a national language . . .


But a nation's language is more - much more - than a mere element of nationality. It is the most striking symbol - the one invincible barrier against disintegration. A distinct  language is the surest and most powerful bond of a distinctive nationality: it's most effective bulwark; the most certain - indeed, the only certain - guarantee of its continuance and perpetuation. But a nation's language, thus regarded, should not be looked at merely in itself. It should be looked at in conjunction with all that it imports, holds and enshrines - all that it carries down the stream of time from the dim and distant, the storied and centuried past. It should be regarded as the vehicle of the people's history; the key to their polity and jurisprudence; the mirror in which their mind, manner and customs are reflected ; the shrine of their legends, myths, beliefs and superstitions; the repository of their literature; the only reliable index to the national life of the past. For all this, and much more, a people's language is.

So, who is this English patriot? Well the Rev M.P. O'Hickey wrote this in a pamphlet 1898 following his address to The Gaelic League in Dublin!

O'Hickey was an Irish Nationalist and he was stating the case for the return of the Gaelic language as part of the Home Rule movement trying to rid Ireland of the hated British colonial power!

Strange isn't it that this perfectly sums up the case for all our citizens to have English as their first language, for all potential immigrants and aspiring future citizens to speak the language of Shakespeare and Churchill and understand the essential place it holds in our history and culture, and as an eloquent antidote to the pernicious mulicultural nonsense spouted for 12 years by the NuLab cultural fascists.


(Source: Rev. MP O'Hickey (1898) The True National Idea, London, Gaelic League pamphlet no 1, p2)