The decline of the Irish language was the result of two factors: the Great Irish Potato Famine and the repeal of Penal Laws. The Potato Famine led to a decline in the Irish-speaking population. The repeal of Penal Law made Catholics interested in learning English as a way to get ahead in life.
It is believed that Irish remained the majority tongue as late as 1800 but became a minority language during the 19th century. It is an important part of Irish nationalist identity, marking a cultural distance between Irish people and the English.
Here we trace the decline of the Irish language from a dominant postion in the 1500s, to its catastrophic collapse after the Great Famine of the 1840s. In the intervening period, it had also come down in social stature.
The Irish language case
This was followed in 1537 with The Statute of Ireland – An Act for the English Order Habit and Language that prohibited the use of the Irish language in the Irish Parliament. In 1541, further legislation was passed which banned the use of Irish in the areas of Ireland then under English rule.
Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in areas of Ireland collectively known as the Gaeltacht, in which only 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2016. It is also spoken by a larger group of habitual but non-traditional speakers, mostly in urban areas where the majority are second-language speakers.
Irish is a Celtic language (as English is a Germanic language, French a Romance language, and so on). This means that it is a member of the Celtic family of languages. Its “sister” languages are Scottish, Gaelic, and Manx (Isle of Man); its more distant “cousins” are Welsh, Breton, and Cornish.
In the whole world, there are an estimated 1.2 million speakers of the Irish language. Of this number, only about 170,000 speak it as a first language. The great majority — about 98 percent — of Irish speakers live in Ireland itself.
' The aim of the British colonial authorities through the school system in Ireland at the time, was the forced removal of the Irish language to facilitate British rule in Ireland.
In 1948 the Taoiseach - the Irish prime minister - announced that Ireland was to be declared a republic. The UK Parliament then passed the Ireland Bill which acknowledged the 1949 declaration that Ireland had “ceased to be part…of His Majesty's dominions” and therefore a member of the Commonwealth.
The English language was first taken to Ireland in the late twelfth century and despite many vicissitudes has remained there since, becoming the first language of the majority of the population in the course of several centuries.
Irish is one of the oldest written and historical languages in the world. It was seen for the first time in Ogham form in the fifth century. Today it can be found in up to 4,500 books, on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and on the internet.
The number of Irish speakers decreased by 13,017 people from the previous census. And even more telling, only 2% of people in Ireland speak the language on a daily basis. With numbers like this, it's easy to see why Irish is an endangered language.
In the late 18th century, the Gaelic language was heavily suppressed during the infamous Highland Clearances following the turbulent Jacobite uprisings. Although speakers of the Scottish language were persecuted over the centuries, Gaelic is still spoken today by around 60,000 Scots.
In the 21st Century, the term Black Irish refers to Black people in Ireland – people of African or other Black heritage living in Ireland, raised in Ireland, or whose families now hail from Ireland. "Black Irish" is an officially recognised term used by the Irish government every 5 years during the census.
Irish is a Celtic language that, via Proto-Celtic (c. 1.000 B.C.), can be derived from the recon- structed Proto-Indo-European language that was spoken in the Neolithic c. 6.000 years ago. Through this ancestry, Irish is very distantly related to most European languages and to many more in the Near and Middle East.
To say Goodbye in Irish you would say “Slán leat” – literally meaning “goodbye (health) to you”. You can be less formal and just say “Slán”, bye. Or as we say in our own video … “Slán go fóill” – Bye for now.
The most common greeting is the handshake. The Irish usually shake hands when being introduced or when greeting a friend or work colleague. In formal situations or with people of higher status, titles and last names are used. Among close friends and family, the Irish may hug and kiss each other on the cheek.
What is the most famous Irish blessing? “May the road rise up to meet you” is one of the most famous Irish blessings.
In the Parliament of the United Kingdom (2022)
The Bill passed in the House of Commons with its third reading on 26 October. On 6 December, the Act received royal assent, meaning that Irish would become an official language in Northern Ireland once the relevant provisions are brought into force.
The Statutes of Iona in 1609-10 and 1616 outlawed the Gaelic learned orders, and sought to eradicate Gaelic, the so-called 'Irish' language so that the 'vulgar English tongue' might be universally planted.
The population of the Republic of Ireland was predicted to be 5.01 million in April 2021 according to the CSO. Irish is a main domestic, work or community language for approximately 2% of the population of Ireland.
The Irish language reached Australia in 1788, along with English. Irish, when used by convicts in the early colonial period, was seen as a language of covert opposition, and was therefore viewed with suspicion by colonial authorities.
Irish has a reputation for being difficult to learn, but as an English speaker you will find that Irish uses the same Latin alphabet as English.
Gaelic is a dying language due to many of its native speakers passing away. Younger generations, raised on television and internet, have found no need to learn the language. However, some in Scotland are trying to keep the language alive through a dictionary project.