Irish
Language · official in 1 country
Gaeilge lost its silent dh in the spelling reform of 1948; before that it was written Gaedhilge. Irish is a Celtic language of the Goidelic group, written first in Ogham and from the 5th century in the Latin alphabet, and the Constitution of Ireland makes it the national and first official language.
The language on record
- Own name
- Gaeilge
- ISO 639-1
- GA
- ISO 639-3
- GLE
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Celtic
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Irish is official
Ireland alone among the states on record, with English as its second official language. Northern Ireland made Irish official beside English by an act that received royal assent on 6 December 2022.
Official beside Irish
About Irish
What happened to the monoglot speakers
Irish was the first language of most people on the island until the 19th century. Its decline ran from the late 17th century through a pattern of Irish-speaking grandparents, bilingual children and English-speaking grandchildren. English became the language of the middle class and of emigration, and the Catholic Church favoured it. An estimated 800,000 people spoke only Irish in 1800, 320,000 by the end of the Great Famine, and under 17,000 by 1911.
Who led the Gaelic revival
The Gaelic League, Conradh na Gaeilge, was founded in 1893 to bring Irish back into daily life. It held conversation meetings, published the newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis and won a place for Irish in the school curriculum, and it had 400 branches within ten years. Writers such as Peadar Ua Laoghaire and Pádraic Ó Conaire gave the revival a modern literature.
Is Irish used in government
Rarely, despite its status. Almost all government business and legislative debate is in English, though Article 25.4 of the constitution requires official translations of laws, and Irish is a required subject in every publicly funded school. An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the written standard, was devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. It sits above three dialects, Connacht, Munster and Ulster, each with its own speech and spelling.
What the census counts show
In April 2022, 1,873,997 people in Ireland said they could speak Irish, 40% of respondents. Of these, 472,887 never spoke it and 551,993 spoke it only in education. Daily speakers outside school numbered 71,968, of whom 20,261 lived in the Gaeltacht, the regions where Irish is still a community language and where 2% of the population lived that year. Northern Ireland's 2021 census counted 43,557 daily speakers.
When Irish became a full EU language
Irish became an official language of the European Union on 1 January 2007. A derogation requested by the Irish government limited translation to co-decision regulations for its first years, and Irish became a fully recognised EU language on 1 January 2022.
Common questions
Questions about Irish
Should it be called Irish or Gaelic?
Both names are used. In English the language is usually called Irish; Irish Gaelic, or simply Gaelic, is more common outside Ireland. In Irish, Gaeilge can cover Scottish Gaelic and Manx as well, so Gaeilge na hÉireann is used when the three need telling apart.
How is Irish related to Scottish Gaelic and Manx?
Middle Irish, carried by its speakers to Scotland and the Isle of Man, gave rise to both.
What is the Gaeltacht?
The regions of Ireland where Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language. In 2022 they held 2% of the population and 20,261 daily speakers outside the school system.
How old is written Irish?
Ogham inscriptions go back to at least the 4th century, and the Latin alphabet took over from the 5th. The first printed book in Irish appeared in 1685.