Are there any towns in Ireland where the majority of inhabitants can ONLY speak Gaelic and not English?

Question

Probably on the West coast of Ireland, just curious really if there were still any small towns where most cannot speak English at all and only communicate in Irish Gaelic.

Answer 1

there is a map at http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/travelireland/ which shows where the Gaeltacht areas are, where Irish is the everyday language. Point on the map with the cursor, and it will show you which area it is. The two spots in Co. Meath are where people moved from other Gaeltacht areas and decided to keep their own language and culture alive and thriving.

In all those areas, English would be understood as well, because of course it is learnt as a subject in school, and because most TV programmes are in English. I am sure there is nowhere that people who speak Irish as their mother tongue do not also speak English fluently, if necessary. But it is great to be fluent in TWO languages, especially where one of them belongs exclusively to us.

Answer 2

Spideal in Galway, absolutely not, i have been there a few times, i would say everyone in spideal can speak english

the answer to your question is no there are no towns where the majority can only speak Irish (its irish not gaelic, nobody calls the language Gaelic)

this is the republic ireland in the 21st century, a country with a higher average GDP per capita than the USA, Germany, France or the UK, english literacy rates in the republic are at 99%+ so the chances of a town where the majority of inhabitants can ONLY speak irish and not english are zero; ireland is not the deepest darkest depths of the amazon jungle

Answer 3

There are places where people speak Irish as their everyday language. But I don't think there's anyone in Ireland who can only speak Irish and can't speak English.

Answer 4

There's loads of places where Irish is the first language in Ireland but there's certainly none where they cannot speak English. Those days are long gone.

Answer 5

Yeah there are loads of areas called ''gaelthachts'' however most people living in these areas can speak english. Conemara and the Aran Islands are Irish speaking areas. in the west of Ireland (Galway)

Answer 6

There is no Irish person alive in Ireland anymore who does not speak either English or Irish and English.

Answer 7

Yes if you travel to the western ends of Galway, Clare and Kerry you will find villages where only Irish is spoken. My brother and his family live in Dunquin, beyond Tralee and Dingle and they only speak Irish. But of course they can speak English too!!

Answer 8

There are a few areas called the 'Gaeltacht' in Kerry(south west Ireland)
Galway(the west coast)
and in Donegal(the north west)
They are predominantly Irish speakers here,usually by choice and can usually speak English also.

Answer 9

There are places on the West side where they dipically speak Irish to eachother but they all know and speak English as well. The place where i saw this the most was on the Aran Islands.

Answer 10

There aren't any native born speakers in Ireland anymore. They're all at least bilingual...most Irish people don't really have Irish (Gaelic/Gaeilge) at all....