Editing Conradh na Gaeilge (section)

== Early campaigns ==
Among the League's few campaign successes in its first decade was acceptance by the Post Office of parcels and letters addressed in Irish, and the recognition of [[Saint Patrick's Day|St. Patrick's Day]] as a national holiday.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Rees|first=Russell|title=Ireland 1900-25|publisher=Colourpoint Educational|year=2008|isbn=9781906578008|location=Newtownards|pages=79–80}}</ref>

With national feeling heightened in part by the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]], membership increased from 1900. The number of branches rose from 43 in 1897 to 600 in 1904 with a membership of 50,000. A more substantial victory followed: in 1904 Irish was introduced into the national school curriculum.<ref name=":3" />

The Catholic church, however, was not an early ally.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wolf|first=Nicholas|title=An Irish-speaking Island: State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770-1870|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2015|isbn=9780299302740}}</ref> The clergy had played a significant role in the decline of the language. In the [[National school (Ireland)|National schools]] they had punished children for speaking it<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Elliott|first=Marianne|title=The Catholics of Ulster, a History|publisher=Allen Lane, Penguin Press|year=2000|isbn=0713994649|location=London|pages=368}}</ref> (a legacy, in part, of the Irish-language missionary activity of the Protestant churches).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Doyle|first=Aiden|date=2013-11-27|title='Language and Religion in Ireland 1800-1870'|url=http://cscs.academicblogs.co.uk/language-and-religion-in-ireland-1800-1870/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-29|website=Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131128160134/http://cscs.academicblogs.co.uk/language-and-religion-in-ireland-1800-1870/ |archive-date=28 November 2013 }}</ref>