page_title: Languages of Ireland
section_title: Irish
hierarchical_section_title: Languages of Ireland / Modern languages / Irish
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign in Scariff, Co Clare. A little exercise for the ore to gold group. Taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S5500.
context_page_description: There are a number of languages used in Ireland. Since the late eighteenth century, English has been the predominant first language, displacing Irish. A large minority claims some ability to use Irish, and it is the first language for a small percentage of the population.
  In the Republic of Ireland, under the Constitution of Ireland, both languages have official status, with Irish being the national and first official language. Northern Ireland has no official language, but English is the de facto official language of the United Kingdom and Irish and Ulster-Scots are recognised regional languages.
context_section_description: The original Primitive Irish was introduced by Celtic speakers. Primitive Irish gradually evolved into Old Irish, spoken between the 5th and the 10th centuries, and then into Middle Irish. Middle Irish was spoken in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man through the 12th century, when it began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and the Manx language in the Isle of Man. Today, Irish is recognised as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland and is officially recognised in Northern Ireland and in the European Union. Communities that speak Irish as their first language, generally in sporadic regions on the island's west coast, are collectively called the Gaeltacht. 
  In the 2016 census, 8,068 census forms were completed in Irish, and just under 74,000 said they spoke it on a daily basis. 70% of the population confirmed that they couldn't or didn't speak Irish, with 1.7% speaking it daily. The total number of people who answered 'yes' to being able to speak Irish to some extent in April 2016 was 1,761,420, which represents 39.8 per cent of respondents out of a population of 4,921,500 (2019 estimate) in the Republic of Ireland. 
  In the over 90 years since the independence of the South, efforts to revive Irish as an active daily vernacular of most of the nation have relied on compulsion and have generally failed. 
   
  Although the use of Irish in educational and broadcasting contexts has soared with the 600 plus Irish-language primary/secondary schools and creches, English is still overwhelmingly dominant in almost all social, economic and cultural contexts. In the media, there is an Irish-language TV station TG4, Cúla 4 a children's channel on satellite, 5 radio stations such as the national station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, Raidió na Life in Dublin, Raidió Fáilte in Belfast as well as a youth radio station Raidió Rí-Rá. There are also several newspapers, such as Tuairisc.ie, Meon Eile, Seachtain (a weekly supplement in the Irish Independent) and a number of Magazines including Comhar, Feasta and An Timire. There are also occasional columns written in Irish in English-language newspapers, including The Irish Times, The Irish News, The Irish Examiner, Metro Éireann, Irish Echo, Evening Echo and Andersonstown News. All of the 40 or so radio stations in the Republic have to have some weekly Irish-language programming to obtain their broadcasting licence. Similarly, RTÉ runs Nuacht, a news show, in Irish and Léargas, a documentary show, in Irish with English subtitles. The Official Languages Act 2003 gave many new rights to Irish citizens with respect to the Irish language, including the use of Irish in court proceedings. All Dáil debates are to be recorded in Irish also. In 2007, Irish became the 21st official language of the European Union.
caption: Bilingual road signs in Scariff, County Clare
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