Did you know in Ireland - everyone in Ireland does speak English. You may laugh but there are some people who still think that we speak Gaelic. On a more serious note however Gaelic (Or Irish as we call it here) is only spoken widely in certain areas of the country and is a language under threat. During your holidays you will rarely hear it. In fact the first and last time may be when the Aer Lingus person welcomes you (if you travel with our national carrier).
The ironic thing about that is that the language is compulsory throughout school so students have 100s of hours of study behind them on either leaving or going to third level. However the vast majority of them do not speak it to any conversational level.
Per the Central Statistics Office
Majority of households have an Irish speaker
53.4 per cent of private households contained at least one Irish speaker in 2006. The corresponding figure for households in the Gaeltacht was just over 80 per cent.
Irish usage: A million persons who can speak Irish rarely or never speak the language
Of the near 1.66 million persons who indicated that they could speak Irish, just over 1 million (60%) either never spoke the language or spoke it less frequently than weekly
On travelling around Ireland you will see that most signposts have the English and Irish version of place namse so don't be confused when you see them.
Wikipedia has an interesting article on the Irish language that will give you a detailed history of it
The ironic thing about that is that the language is compulsory throughout school so students have 100s of hours of study behind them on either leaving or going to third level. However the vast majority of them do not speak it to any conversational level.
Per the Central Statistics Office
Majority of households have an Irish speaker
53.4 per cent of private households contained at least one Irish speaker in 2006. The corresponding figure for households in the Gaeltacht was just over 80 per cent.
Irish usage: A million persons who can speak Irish rarely or never speak the language
Of the near 1.66 million persons who indicated that they could speak Irish, just over 1 million (60%) either never spoke the language or spoke it less frequently than weekly
On travelling around Ireland you will see that most signposts have the English and Irish version of place namse so don't be confused when you see them.
Wikipedia has an interesting article on the Irish language that will give you a detailed history of it
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