Irish (Gaeilge) is one of Ireland's two official languages and has been classified as endangered by UNESCO. A century ago just 18% of the country's population spoke it. Today 1.8m people in Ireland (around 40% of the population) claim some ability to speak the language, up 71% from 1991. Few speak it daily, and even fewer predominantly.
Nearly half of students now study Irish at advanced level in secondary school, compared with less than a third in 2005. In Northern Ireland it has overtaken French as the second-most popular A-Level language after Spanish. Irish became compulsory in schools after Ireland won independence from Britain in 1922. The state established TG4, an Irish-language broadcaster, and invested in Irish-only primary schools, whose enrolment grew from 16,000 in 1990 to nearly 50,000 in 2023 (about 8% of all pupils). Exam reforms that place greater emphasis on the oral exam have boosted uptake. Gaelchultur, a Dublin-based provider of Irish language courses, has seen enrolment more than triple since 2020, expanding beyond teachers and academics to young professionals in tech, health care and entertainment.
Irish became a fully fledged official and working language in the European Union in 2022. In Northern Ireland, a 300-year-old ban on Irish in courtrooms was repealed in 2025. The Irish government has set a 20% recruitment quota for Irish speakers in the public sector by 2030. Catherine Connolly, Ireland's president since November 2025, pledged to make Irish the official working language of the presidential office.
The language's revival owes as much to pop culture as to state policy. Cillian Murphy chose Irish for his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards in 2024. Paul Mescal uses Irish casually on the red carpet. "The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)", an Irish-language film, was nominated for an Oscar in 2023. Kneecap, an Irish-language hip-hop group, has earned global recognition. On social media, Irish-speaking influencers have made the language a fixture of everyday life.
The traditional heartlands of Irish fluency, known as the Gaeltacht regions, are mainly along the western coast. In the 19th century a Gaelic revival movement championed Irish pastimes—Gaelic football, hurling and Irish dancing—over British imports such as cricket and rugby. "Pop-up Gaeltachts", informal Irish-language gatherings in urban settings, are helping normalise the language outside the traditional heartlands.
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