Irish language
From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project
Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland, is constitutionally recognised as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, is an official language of the European Union, and has official recognition in Northern Ireland as well.
According to census figures released by the Central Statistics Office in 2004, out of the Republic's 4.2 million residents, there are approximately 1.6 million who regard themselves as competent in Irish. Of these, 350,000 reported using Irish every day, 155,000 weekly, 585,000 less often, 460,000 never, and 30,000 didn't state how often. Of the 350,000 who were reported to use Irish every day, the majority are schoolchildren who use it during their classes in Irish. The number of people in the Gaeltacht region of Ireland who use the language as their daily mother tongue has been variously cited as 70,000[2] and 83,000[3]
It has been argued that previous censuses have overestimated the true number of Irish speakers, as those speaking it only in the schools are included. The recent 2006 Census may provide a more accurate estimate of the Irish-speaking population, because of changes to ask the respondents how often they speak the language and where. Other data state that 168,000 people in Northern Ireland can speak Irish "with varying degrees of ability".[4] The results of the United States Census, 2000 suggest that some 25,000 people use the language at home in the United States.[5] On 13 June 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official language of the European Union. The new arrangements came into effect on 1 January 2007, and Irish was first used at a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, by Minister Noel Treacy, T.D., on 22 January 2007. Since then, it has been regularly used by Irish government ministers.
There also exists a cant called Shelta, based partly on English and partly on Irish, in use by the Irish Travellers. For the English language as it is spoken in Ireland, see Hiberno-English
