evidence: A Welsh MP spoke in Irish during an address in the House of Commons on Wednesday while calling on the British government to legislate for the protection of Irish speakers' rights. [...] First published in The Irish Times, February 20th, 1901 "Another Irish grievance! The few members of the Irish Nationalist Party who are acquainted with the Irish language will not be allowed to use it in the House of Commons. Mr Thomas O’Donnell asserted his "right" to do so last night, but the Speaker would have none of it, being of opinion that the member for West Kerry, with the eloquence of his countrymen, would be able to address the House in very good English. [...] If the use of Irish should come to be legalised no member would avail himself of the new privilege, because his speech would necessarily go unreported. There a re no Irish reporters in the Press Gallery, but it may be doubted whether their shorthand is capable of reproducing untranslated Hibernian eloquence. It might really be an advantage, however, if Irish Nationalist members and some few others could and would adopt the use of a dead language. The pro-boer speeches that have done so much to prolong the war in South Africa and to mislead opinion on the Continent would have been less harmful if they had been couched in Irish, Gaelic or Welsh. But then one great object of the speakers would have been foiled. - The Globe