Philip Barron (Pilib Barúin),
Irish Scholar
was a member of the Barron family of
Belmont Park, in Waterford, a branch of the Geraldines or FitzGeralds. He
became a student at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1820 and is said to have
been there for three years. Like all Catholics of his class (the old
pre-plantation aristocracy), his family had become anglicised to a large
extent and were discarding all vestiges of the old culture as fast as
they could, particularly the Irish language.
One
matter that needed attention was the proper representation of Catholics
in parliament by their own co-religionists. In 1825 Barron bought the
Waterford Chronicle to support efforts
to this end. All he
succeeded in doing was to draw a libel-suit on himself from the
Beresfords, who aligned themselves against Catholic Emancipation in the
1826 election. Barron had a
decree of £1,350 awarded against him and he fled the country rather
than even try to pay it. He
spent much time in France and Italy observing the educational systems
but returned in 1829 convinced that the Irish language was of prime
importance to the people of Ireland.
When he returned home, Barron made himself literate in Irish. He had spoken it from childhood but could neither read nor write
it, like many a person in the nineteenth century. By the 1830’s he had decided to found a college to promote the
native language. This he did at Seafield, near Bunmahon. Here a college building was provided by Barron
at his own expense and at the beginning of January 1835 he began his
work as a teacher and promoter of education in the Irish language. He also published the first volume of Ancient Ireland, a
magazine promoting Irish culture. It
was a bold venture at a time when the British government had launched
the National School System, which was ultimately the killer of the Irish
language and Irish culture. To
launch this ambitious project was almost quixotic. He hoped to sell text books and magazines in every parish among
mostly illiterate and impoverished people but the whole scheme collapsed
in about six months due to lack of sufficient funds. He is remembered fondly among Irish language lovers in his native
place and his memory is perpetuated in the Pilib Barúin Gael Scoil in
Tramore.
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