Irish Literature Vol VII Author:Justin Mccarthy THE IRISH SCHOOL OF ORATORY - IN this age of clear business statements, when only the eloquence of argument and exposition is looked for, and when no moving issues stir mens blood, it has naturally fared hard with the oratory of passion and the opinion of most people seems to be that all elevated language is necessarily false and hollow. As the ... more »great orators of Ireland, Plunket alone excepted, were vehement, figurative, impassioned and rhythmical, they have suffered most by the , fall in parliamentary style, and they are in danger of total neglect at the hands of this generation. One excuse for this undervaluing of Irish oratory may be giren. A crowd of servile imitators, destitute of fire or taste, mapped up their pigmy thoughts in words and images fit only for arguments of the highest concern, and these turgid declaimers brought undeserved condemnation on the men whose lofty manner they had sedulously burlesqued...« less