Irish language

Irish Standard Irish: , also asked as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic Linguistic communication family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland together with was the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century. Irish is still spoken as a number one language in a small number of areas ofcounties such as Cork, Donegal, Galway, together with Kerry, as living as smaller areas of counties Mayo, Meath, and Waterford. this is the also spoken by a larger multiple of habitual but non-traditional speakers, mostly in urban areas where the majority are second-language speakers. Daily users in the Republic of Ireland outside the education system number around 73,000 1.5%, and the or done as a reaction to a question number of persons aged 3 and over who claimed they could speak Irish in April 2016 was 1,761,420, representing 39.8% of respondents.

For most of recorded Irish history, Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people, who took it with them to other regions, such(a) as Scotland and the Isle of Man, where Middle Irish exposed rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It was also for a period spoken widely across Canada, with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland, a unique dialect of Irish developed.

With a writing system, Ogham, dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. On the island, the language has three major dialects: Munster, Connacht and Ulster. any three hold distinctions in their speech and orthography. There is also a "standard a thing that is caused or shown by something else form" devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet, a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters, has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords.

Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and is an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland. this is the also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but the standard innovative calculation form is guided by a parliamentary advantage and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. The modern-day areas of Ireland where Irish is still spoken daily as a first language are collectively asked as the .

Status and policy

Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland English being the other official language. Despite this, most all government business and debates are conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Gaelic League, Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect.

In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they included Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people 4.2% speak it as a habitual daily means of communication.

From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 see History of the Republic of Ireland, a measure of proficiency in Irish was required of all those newly appointed to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland, including postal workers, tax collectors, agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána police, etc. By law whether a Garda was stopped and addressed in Irish he had toin Irish as well. Proficiency in just one official language for entrance to the public service was introduced in 1974, in factor through the actions of demostrate organisations like the Language Freedom Movement.

Although the Irish something that is required in continue was also dropped for wider public service jobs, Irish supports a required specified of discussing in all schools within the Republic which get public money see Education in the Republic of Ireland. Those wishing to teach in primary schools in the State must also pass a compulsory examination called . The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English for programs to the Garda Síochána was introduced in September 2005, and recruits are condition lessons in the language during their two years of training. The most important official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by , the Irish language ombudsman.

The Misneach staged a number of protests against this decision. It was announced in September 2017 that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, a fluent Irish speaker, would be NUIG's 13th president.

For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in mainstream English-medium schools tocompetence in the language, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a hold of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few speakers and some incredulity while speaking only Irish in Dublin. He was unable tosome everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla.

There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, especially in ] proportion of pupils on to third-level education than do "mainstream" schools, and it seems increasingly possible that, within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish will typically be members of an urban, middle class and highly educated minority.

Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in the other official language, if not already passed in both official languages.

In November 2016, it was reported that numerous people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights keeps an "unfinished project".

There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language. These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht plural . While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they symbolize a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent.

According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times, referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers well in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000."

In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht. Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara, the west of the Dingle Peninsula, and northwest Donegal, where numerous residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as the true Gaeltacht, a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish.

There are larger Gaeltacht regions in County Galway , including Connemara , the Aran Islands , Carraroe and Spiddal , on the west fly of County Donegal , and on the Dingle and Iveragh Peninsulas in County Kerry .

Smaller ones also live in counties Mayo , Meath , Waterford , and Cork . Gweedore , County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged.

The Act was passed 14 July 2003 with the main intention of reclassification the amount and bracket of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga Irish Language Commissioner which was develop in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in the Act all detailing different aspects of the ownership of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in ordering to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All refine made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions.

The Official Languages Scheme was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003. The aim of the Scheme is to administer services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to defining a better future for Ireland and all her citizens."

The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page written document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an try to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It is dual-lane up into four separate phases with the intention of upgrade 9 leading areas of action including:

The general goal for this strategy is to include the amount of speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run.

Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years the political party holding power to direct or determine in the Stormont Parliament, the Ulster Unionist Party UUP, was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. The language received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language but as of 2019 it has yet to do so. The Irish language has often been used as a bargaining chip during government cut in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as . There is currently an ongoing debate in relation to the status of the language in the form of an Irish Language Act. An Dream Dearg have launched a campaign in favour of such an Act called "Irish Language Act Now".