Thomas pestered the Jesuits in the same way he had bothered his father. Why are we not allowed to govern ourselves? Why can’t we speak our language? (Gaelic was still the primary tongue for one and a half million Irish.) And what future is there for a nation whose landowners live in another country, collecting rents from the native inhabitants? To these queries, the priests told the boy to mind his mouth. The Jesuits spoke a half-dozen languages, but Irish nationalism was not one of them.
