what percentage of the Irish population speaks fluent Gaelic?

Question

It is taught in grade schools, correct?

Answer 1

The first question is a little tricky so I will answer your second question first.

Irish Gaelic is taught as a compulsory subject from the moment a child enters school to the time they leave, from around 4/5 years old to 15/16 or 18/19 depending on whether the individual leaves after 3rd year (9th grade US) or stays on till 6th year (12th grade US). So around 14 academic years of education.

As regards the first question:

"Of the Republic of Ireland's 4,057,646 residents who are aged three and over, 1,656,790 people (40.9%) regard themselves as competent in Irish. The number of people in the Gaeltacht [Irish speaking] regions of Ireland is 91,862, as of the 2006 census. Of these, 70.8% aged three and over speak Irish and approximately 60% speak Irish on a daily basis. The number of people speaking Irish reflects the fact that, to a certain extent, Irish is a compulsory subject in Ireland. Outside the educational system, 1,203,583 (29.7% of the population aged three years and over) regard themselves as competent Irish speakers. Of these 85,076 (7.1%) speak Irish on a daily basis, 97,089 (8.1%) weekly, 581,574 (48.3%) less often, 412,846 (34.3%) never, and 26,998 (2.2%) didn't state how often.


The 2001 census in Northern Ireland showed that 167,487 (10.4%) people 'had some knowledge of Irish'. Combined, this means that around one in three people (~1.8 million) on the island of Ireland can understand Irish to some extent."

( Wiki Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language )

The best hope for the future survival of the Irish language is for more and more young people to be raised through the language and go to formal education also through Irish. Each year more and more Irish-language schools (Gaelscoileanna) open and hope this will in the future lead to more fluent speakers and more people raised through the language.

Now I need to point out some things.

The language is called Irish or Irish Gaelic (IG) in Ireland and by linguistics and other lingophiles. Gaelic refers to Scottish Gaelic (SG), a sister language of IG. SC and IG and Manx Gaelic (MG) are all daughter languages of Old Irish. Welsh, Breton and Cornish ARE NOT Gaelic languages but they are Celtic, just from a different daughter family of Celtic than the Gaelic languages.

Goidelic Insular Celtic family: IG, SG, MG
Brythonic Insular Celtic family: Welsh, Cornish, Breton
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_Celtic_languages )

And Gaelic itself was not spoken all across Europe. However the parent language to Insular Celtic was spoken on mainland Europe. An example of a Continental Celtic language (sister family to Insular Celtic) includes Gaulish which was spoken until around the 6th century AD in the land that is now modern France. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaulish_language ) ; ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Celtic_languages ) ; ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages )

By the way I am Irish and I speak Irish Gaelic.

Census 2006: http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/Final%20Principal%20Demographic%20Results%202006.pdf

Answer 2

In the 1981 census, over 5,000 people claimed to be monolingual Gaelic speakers.The constitution marks Irish Gaelic as the first official language. It has been taught in schools since 1922. There is now a marked resurgence of interest in the language and its literature, although nowhere as much as in Welsh (which ,by the way, 'cheek of' is NOT Gaelic..it's very different). There are TV programs(sit-coms etc) and newspapers in Gaelic and there are some parts of rural Ireland where a large percentage speak it as their first language.

Answer 3

Gaelic Speakers In Ireland

Answer 4

We call it Irish here. Gaelic is what's spoken in Scotland, in Ireland it's Erse.

Not how many fluent speakers there are out there, but I think there are more than there were 10 years ago, because we now have an Irish language channel. It's called TG4, or TG Ceathair, and it's where I watch Spongebob Squarepants. Cartoons in Irish are a trip!

Answer 5

the_cheek_of_it - People do not speak Gaelic in Wales. They speak Welsh.

Welsh and Gaelic are two totally different languages, completely unrelated.

I'm Welsh and it used to drive me mad when I worked in a pub in Kent and people would ask me to translate Irish Gaelic Horse names (they were big racing fans) because they assumed Welsh and Gaelic were the same thing! They are about as similar as French and German!!!

In response to the original question, I beleive Gaelic is taught in schools in Ireland, just like Welsh is taught in schools in Wales. But like Wales I imagine the proportion of people in Ireland who can speak Gaelic *fluently* is not that large. There are areas of Wales which are very strong Welsh speaking where most people speak Welsh and for many its their first language - these are normally in West and North Wales. In the South East you're lucky to find a fluent Welsh speaker.

Most Welsh people in the South can cope with a few words of Welsh (as I can) but not that many can speak it fluently. Although this is changing as kids today have to learn Welsh up to the age of 16 at school and many more children are going to Welsh Medium schools. I expect its the same in Ireland.

Answer 6

very little irish people speak gaelic. many speak irish though as its taught in schools (these are 2 very different languages) its not taught very well though and many people leave 13 years of schooling with very little irish. i speak it almost fluently with i attribute to a fantastic (but very strict teacher) there are gaeltacht areas around ireland like corca dhuibhne or connemara and there areas are irish speaking areas but the majority of the country has a poor level of spoken irish

Answer 7

To the previous poster, its not Irish its Gaelic as it is not only spoken in Ireland but also Scotland, Wales (where it has some differences) and if you dig deep on the internet you may find other areas that used to speak it like France at one point in their history. and going further back it was the primary language spoken through out europe.

So the language has been in a long running battle of survival for some 1500-1600 years.

ADDITIONAL:

Well all the thumbs down show that theirs some pretty ignorant people as it is a fact that the Gaelic language was spoken across Europe and as far as Ankara and Italy.

Answer 8

its taught in schools yes but that doesnt mean that people will keep it up once they leave school
i wish i knew more Irish
according to one census a few years back 40% of people could speak Irish.
But that doesnt mean to say that its always used everyday

Answer 9

Many people claim proficiency in it (over a million people) but very few actually use it, preferring instead to speak in English.
go here to learn it https://www.duolingo.com/

Answer 10

as far as i know who really speak it is about 5% and mostly in western ireland
tought in school but people don't really bother to actually learn it :) it's only to preserve traditions