Irish Culture

Due to the centuries of British rule, much of the population of Ireland uses English as the language of choice for daily life. However, before this time the dominant language of Ireland was the Irish language, or Gaeilge, which is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. This language can be traced back to the Goidelic language branch of the Celtic languages, which also include the Scottish, Gaelic, and Manx languages. Having these two languages means that “multilinguals must engage in language negotiation [and choose], whether explicitly or implicitly, which language to use in a given situation” (Nakayama). Many of the Republic of Ireland who live along the west coast in more remote villages tend to only speak the Irish language and don’t have to deal with this same issue.

In much of the rest of the country however, English is the language used in most everyday life, government interactions and documents, and education. The only exception of this in education however are some schools found outside the Gaeltacht region, an area along west coast as previously mentioned, where the entire curriculum is given in Irish, these schools are also called Gaelscoil. “Irish was, and is, a vibrant living language, which in a very different context, could have remained the dominant language for everyday interactions whereas English remained the formal language of government, law, and commerce” (Delaney). With the many cultural revolutions that have taken place and the independence of the Republic of Ireland, there has been a constant and powerful drive to increase the number of fluent Irish speakers within the country.