Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Irish Language shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Irish Language offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Irish Language at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Irish Language? Wrong! If the Irish Language is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Irish Language then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Irish Language? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Irish Language and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Irish Language wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Irish Language then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Irish Language site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Irish Language, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Irish Language, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.



{{Infobox Language |name=Irish |nativename={{lang|ga|Gaeilge--> |pronunciation=ˈgeːlʲɟə |states=[Republic of Ireland, [Northern Ireland |region=[Gaeltachtaí, but also spoken throughout [Ireland |speakers= 260,000 fluent or native speakers (1983)Ethnologue, http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=GLI Gaelic, Irish: a language of Ireland
1,860,000 some knowledge (2006) |script=[Latin alphabet ([Irish orthography) |familycolor=Indo-European |fam2=[Celtic languages |fam3=[Insular Celtic languages |fam4=[Goidelic languages |nation=[Republic of Ireland
[Northern Ireland
[European Union |agency=[Foras na Gaeilge |iso1=ga |iso2=gle |iso3=gle --> of the Republic of Ireland; the six Northern Ireland counties have been considered as one.

Irish () is a Celtic languages of the Goidelic languages spoken in Ireland. Although once spoken across the whole of the island, it is currently a minority vernacular in Ireland, spoken in specific communities and most particularly in officially-recognised Gaeltacht, which exist around the Republic of Ireland. It is Constitution of Ireland upheld as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and it is an official language of the European Union. It is also an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland.

Of the Republic of Ireland's 4,057,646 residents who are aged three and over, 1,656,790 people (40.9%) regard themselves as competent in Irish.{{cite web] regions of Ireland is 91,862, as of the 2006 census. Of these, 70.8% aged three and over speak Irish and approximately 60% speak Irish on a daily basis.(Table 33) The number of people speaking Irish reflects the fact that, to a certain extent, Irish is a compulsory subject in Ireland. Outside the educational system, 1,203,583 (29.7% of the population aged three years and over) regard themselves as competent Irish speakers.(Table 32A)Of these 85,076 (7.1%) speak Irish on a daily basis, 97,089 (8.1%) weekly, 581,574 (48.3%) less often, 412,846 (34.3%) never, and 26,998 (2.2%) didn't state how often.

The 2001 census in Irish language in Northern Ireland showed that 167,487 (10.4%) people 'had some knowledge of Irish'. Combined, this means that around one in three people (~1.8 million) on the Ireland can understand Irish to some extent.

On 13 June 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an Languages of the European Union 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.

According to the 2002 Census of Population, 42% of the population of Ireland report having the ability to speak Irish. The Irish government has stated that it is committed to the development of a bilingual society, where as many people as possible can use Irish and English with equal ease and facility.{{cite web|url=http://www.pobail.ie/en/IrishLanguage/StatementontheIrishLanguage2006/file,7802,en.pdf|title=Statement on the Irish Language 2006|publisher=Government of Ireland|accessdate=2007-06-19-->

Names of the language In English The language is usually referred to in English language as Irish, sometimes as Gaelic (International Phonetic Alphabet: ), or in general terms as Irish Gaelic when discussing other Goidelic languages. Gaelic is often used in the Irish diaspora. Calling the language Irish is a precise indication of its constitutional status as the national language of the Republic of Ireland, and by extension, the Irish people. Irish is the term generally used among linguistics studying the language; it is also the term used in the Constitution of Ireland. On the other hand, use of the term Gaelic acknowledges the language's close relationship with other Goidelic languages and could be considered more endonymic.

Closely related languages which descend from Old Irish include Scottish Gaelic language (), and Manx Gaelic (), languages spoken in Scotland and the Isle of Man respectively, so the term Irish Gaelic instead of Irish is often used when the three languages and their relationship to one another are being discussed. Scottish Gaelic is often referred to in English as simply Gaelic (IPA: or ). The archaic term wikt:Erse (from Erisch), originally a Scots language form of the word Irish, and used in Scotland to apply to all of the Goidelic languages, is no longer used for any Goidelic language, and in most current contexts is considered derogatory.Door Raymond Hickey, 2002, A Source Book for Irish English, John Benjamins Publishing Company: NetherlandsDoor Christopher Whyte, 2004, Modern Scottish Poetry, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh

In Irish In the (the official written standard) the name of the language is (IPA: ), which reflects the southern Connacht Irish pronunciation.

Before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled ; originally this was the genitive case of , the form used in Early Modern Irish language. Older spellings of this include in Middle Irish language and in Old Irish language. The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge.

Other forms of the name found in the various modern Irish dialects, in addition to south Connacht mentioned above, include (IPA: ) or (IPA: ) in Ulster Irish and northern Connacht Irish and (IPA: ) in Munster Irish.

Official status In the Republic of Ireland Irish is given recognition by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Ireland (with English language being a second official language). Since the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see also History of the Republic of Ireland), the Irish Government required a degree of proficiency in Irish for all Civil service of the Republic of Ireland positions (including postal workers, tax officials, agricultural inspectors, etc.). Proficiency in Irish for entrance to the public service ceased to be a compulsory requirement in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organizations like the Language Freedom Movement.

While the requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see also Education in the Republic of Ireland). Those wishing to teach in primary schools in the State must also pass a compulsory examination called "Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge". The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish for entry to the Garda Síochána (police) was dropped in September 2005, although applicants are given lessons in the language during the two years of training. All official documents of the Irish Government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (this is according to the official languages act 2003, which is enforced by "an comisinéir teanga", the language ombudsman).

In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his auguration Declaration of Office in his native County Roscommon Irish remains almost the only surviving remnant of anyone speaking in that dialect.

The National University of Ireland, Galway is required to appoint a person who is competent in the Irish language, as long as they meet all other respects of the vacancy they are appointed to. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3).Irish Statue Book, University College Galway Act, 1929. Retrieved on 2007-10-13. It is expected that the requirement may be repealed in due course.{{cite web] 2005 requires that an "official translation" be provided of any law in both official languages—if not already passed in both official languages.{{cite web|url=http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20(Eng).htm|title=Constitution of Ireland|date=[1 July 1937|publisher=Government of Ireland|accessdate=2007-06-19-->

In Northern Ireland .The language has also received a degree of Irish language in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The British government promised to create legislation encouraging the language as part of the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.{{cite news] 2006|publisher=BBC News|accessdate=2007-06-19-->

In the European Union As an Languages of the European Union of the European Union all legislation and documents of major public importance or interest are produced in Irish. Before Irish became an official language on 1 January 2007, it was afforded the status of Languages of the European Union and only the highest-level documents of the EU had been translated into Irish.

Gaeltacht There are parts of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known collectively as the Gaeltacht. These are in County Galway (), including Connemara (), the Aran Islands (), Carraroe () and Spiddal (); on the west coast of County Donegal (); in the part which is known as Tír Conaill (); and Dingle Peninsula () in County Kerry (). Smaller ones also exist in County Mayo (), County Meath (), County Waterford (), and County Cork (). However, even within the Gaeltacht areas, the Irish-speaking populations have declined since the Gaeltacht boundaries were drawn up.

Gweedore (), County Donegal is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland.

The numerically and socially strongest Gaeltacht areas are those of South Connemara, west Dingle and northwest Donegal, in which the majority of residents (although not all in North-West Donegal) use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as the ("true Gaeltacht") and collectively have a population just under 20,000.

Irish summer colleges are attended by tens of thousands of Irish teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilidh and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged.

According to data compiled by the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, only one quarter of households in Gaeltacht areas possess a fluency in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments a 'complete and absolute disaster.' The Irish Times (January 6, 2002), referring to his analysis, which was initially published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse, quoted him as follows: 'It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000.'

Dialects There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (), Connacht () and Ulster (). Newfoundland (island), in eastern Canada, is also seen to have a minor dialect of Irish, closely resembling the Irish spoken during the 16th to 17th centuries (See Newfoundland Irish).

Munster dialects Munster Irish is mainly spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of Kerry (), Ring, County Waterford () near Dungarvan () in County Waterford () and Muskerry () and Clear Island () in the western part of County Cork (). The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish.

Some typical features of Munster Irish are:
  • The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus "I must" is in Munster , while other dialects prefer ( means "I"). "I was and you were" is in Munster but in other dialects.
  • In front of nasals and "ll" some short vowels are lengthened while others are diphthongised.
  • A copular construction involving is frequently used.
  • Stress (linguistics) is often on the second syllable of a word, e.g. ("pin"), as opposed to in Connacht and Ulster.


    • Connacht dialects The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the last century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the larger Connacht Gaeltacht is the dialect spoken in the smaller region on the border between Galway () and Mayo (). The northern Mayo dialect of Erris () and Achill () is in grammar and morphology (linguistics) essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster.

    There are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard—notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in , e.g. instead of , "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound. Distinguishing features of this dialect include the pronunciation of broad bh as , rather than as in Munster. For example ("my boat") is pronounced in Connacht and Ulster as opposed to in the south. In addition Connacht and Ulster speakers tend to include the "we" pronoun rather than use the standard compound form used in Munster e.g. is used for "we were" instead of elsewhere.

    Ulster dialects Linguistically the most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore ( = Inlet of Streaming Water), and used by native singers Enya () and Moya Brennan and their siblings in Clannad ( = Family .from the Water) Na Casaidigh, and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from another local band Altan.

    Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. For instance, Scottish Gaelic has many non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish.

    One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative participle in place of the Munster and Connacht version . Even in Ulster, —most typical of Scottish Gaelic—has largely ousted the more common (except in "is not") in northernmost dialects (e.g. Rosguill and Tory Island).

    An Caighdeán An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official Standard"), often shortened to An Caighdeán, is the standard language, and was introduced in the 1950s/1960s in an attempt to make Irish easier to learn, as it was composed using elements of the Munster, Ulster and Connacht dialects. This is the 'dialect' that is taught in most schools in Ireland.

    The dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this.

    The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs mainly to the Connemara dialect. The Irish-speaking community in Meath is mostly a group of Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (who subsequently became one of the greatest modernist writers in the language).

    What has been called "Dublin Irish" and "Gaelscoil Irish" is also spoken in the capital and amongst the students of Irish-speaking schools throughout the country. This is simply the national standard of Irish, or An Caighdeán Oifigiúil.

    Comparisons The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. A good example is the greeting "How are you?". Just as this greeting varies from region to region, and between social classes, among English speakers, this greeting varies among Irish speakers:



    In recent decades contacts between speakers of different dialects have become frequent and mixed dialects have originated. With the growth in the Irish language media—and in particular the television channel TG4—it has become much easier for speakers of different dialects to understand one another, although this is mostly seen in the younger generations.

    Linguistic structure The features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the Irish orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, the use of Indo-European copula, and Grammatical gender. However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian language and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages.

    Syntax Word order in Irish is of the form Verb Subject Object (Verb-Subject-Object) so that, for example, "He hit me" is tense .

    One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as ). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. It is used to say that a noun is another noun, rather than an adjective. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs and in Spanish language and Portuguese language (see Romance copula), although this is only a rough approximation.

    Morphology Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is , which in the first person singular becomes "at me". When used with the verb ("to be") indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have".

    {|cellspacing="7"|||"I have a book."||(Literally, "there is a book at me")|-|||"You have a drink."|-|||"He has a computer."|-|||"She has a child."|-|||"We have a car."|-|||"You (plural) have a house."|-|||"They have money."|}

    Orthography and pronunciation .

    The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is or and á is in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be .

    Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or .

    It simplified and standardised the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected.

    Examples:

    Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the "long mark", plural . In English, this is frequently referred to as simply the , where the adjective is used as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a or (often shortened to ), derives from the punctum delens, which was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts.

    Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters.

    Today the Gaelic script and the are rarely used except where a "traditional" style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat of arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces, The Irish Defence Forces cap badge . Letters with the are available in Unicode and ISO 8859-14 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chartUnicode 5.0, . Retrieved on 2007-10-13.).

    Mutations In Irish, there are two classes of initial mutations:





    History Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the fourth century AD; this stage of the language is known as Primitive Irish. Old Irish language, dating from the sixth century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. Middle Irish language, dating from the tenth century, is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the famous Ulster Cycle. Early Modern Irish, dating from the thirteenth century, was the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland, and is attested by such writers as Geoffrey Keating. From the eighteenth century the language went into a decline, rapidly losing ground to English due in part to restrictions dictated by British occupation, and in the mid-nineteenth century it lost a large portion of its speakers to death and emigration resulting from poverty, particularly in the wake of the Great Irish Famine. At the end of the nineteenth century, members of the Gaelic Revival movement made efforts to encourage the learning and use of Irish in Ireland.

    Current status Republic of Ireland The number of native Irish-speakers in the Republic of Ireland today is a smaller fraction of what it was at independence. The main reason for the decline was the pressure the state put upon Irish-speakers to use English The state is the main force anglicising the gaeltacht, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/baile_nua/state_policies.html. The Official Languages Act 2003 of 2003 gave people the right to interact with state bodies in Irish. It is too early to assess how well this is working in practice. Other factors were outward migration of Irish speakers from the Gaeltacht (see related issues at Irish diaspora) and inward migration of English-speakers. The Planning and Development Act (2000) attempted to address the latter issue, with varied levels of success. urban planning controls now require new housing in Gaeltacht areas to be allocated to English-speakers and Irish-speakers in the same ratio as the existing population of the area. This will prevent new houses allocated to Irish-speakers being immediately sold on to English-speakers. However, the restriction only lasts for a few years. Also, people are not required to reach native speaker standards of fluency to qualify as Irish-speakers.

    On 19 December, 2006 the government announced a 20-year strategy to help Ireland become a fully bilingual country. This involved a 13 point plan and encouraging the use of language in all aspects of life. RTÉ News, 2006-12-19, Govt announces 20-year bilingual strategy. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.Government of Ireland, . Retrieved on 2007-10-13.

    Daily life Several computer software products have the option of an Irish-language interface. Prominent examples include KDE,{{cite web],{{cite web|url=http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/|title=Firefox in Irish|publisher=mozdev.org|accessdate=2007-06-19-->Mozilla Thunderbird,OpenOffice.org,{{cite web],{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&displaylang=ga|title=Windows XP ® Pacáiste Comhéadan Gaeilge|language=Irish|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=2007-06-19-->.

    Many English-speaking Irish people use small and simple phrases (known as cúpla focal, "a few words") in their everyday speech, e.g. ("goodbye"), ("get home safely"), ("good health"; used when drinking like "bottoms up" or "cheers"), - ("thank you"), ("a hundred thousand welcomes", a tourist board saying), ("How are you?"). There are many more small sayings that have crept into Hiberno-English. The term Crack (craic) has been popularised outside Ireland in its Gaelic spelling: "How's the craic?" or "What's the 'craic'?" ("how's the fun?"/"how is it going?").

    and Irish in Tesco Ireland store, Ballyfermot, Dublin. Many public bodies have Irish language or bilingual names, but some have downgraded the language. An Post, the Republic's postal service, continues to have Place names in Irish in the language on its postmarks, as well as recognising addresses (as does the Royal Mail in Northern Ireland). Traditionally, the private sector has been less supportive, although support for the language has come from some private companies. For example, Irish supermarket chain Superquinn introduced bilingual signs in its stores in the 1980s, a move which was followed more recently by the United Kingdom chain Tesco for its stores in the Republic.

    In an effort to increase the use of the Irish language by the State, the Official Languages Act 2003 was passed in 2003. This act ensures that most publications made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Language Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment for both languages. Effectively this is to protect Irish as a minority language.

    A major factor in the decline of natively-spoken Irish has been the movement of English speakers into the Gaeltacht (predominantly Irish speaking areas) and the return of native Irish-speakers who have returned with English-speaking families. This has been stimulated by government grants and infrastructure projects The state has anglicised the Gaeltacht by encouraging the immigration of English-speakers, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/baile_nua/migration.html "only about half Gaeltacht children learn Irish in the home... this is related to the high level of in-migration and return migration which has accompanied the economic restructuring of the Gaeltacht in recent decades".The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future, p. xxvi. Many see this as a deliberate attempt by anti-nationalist politicians to wipe out the language. "That economic development of the kind undertaken was likely to have such consequences was readily predictable a decade ago".The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future, p. 47. In a last-ditch effort to stop the demise of Irish-speaking in Connemara in Galway, planning controls have been introduced on the building of new homes in Irish speaking areas.

    in Kilkenny. The sign reads, "Fáilte go dtí Guinness - Ceol agus Comhrá" (Welcome to Guinness - Music and Conversation)

    Attempts have been made to offer support for the language through the media, notably with the launch of Raidió na Gaeltachta (Gaeltacht radio) and Teilifís na Gaeilge (Irish language television, initially abbreviated to 'TnaG', now renamed TG4). Both have been relatively successful. TG4 has offered Irish-speaking young people a forum for youth culture as Gaeilge (in Irish) through rock and pop shows, travel shows, dating games, and even a controversial award-winning soap opera in Irish called Ros na Rún. Most of TG4's viewership, however, tends to come from showing Gaelic football, hurling and rugby union matches and also films in English, and English pop music programs, although some of its Irish language programmes attract large audiences. In 1996, Nuacht TG4 (TG4 News) was getting only about 5,000 viewers daily. This figure has now risen to just under 50,000 (as of 2006). The channel's viewership has steadily risen since the foundation of the station it will become independent from the State in the distant future. Arguments about the level of funding it receives persist.

    The Irish Language daily newspaper Lá Nua publishes five days a week and has circulation of several thousand as well as an active website. There is also a weekly paper, Foinse. These require government sponsorship. The Irish News has two pages in Irish every day. The Irish Times had up until recently one article in Irish every week. Now it has several articles with some articles appended with short lists giving the meaning of some of the words used in English. Another paper, Saol, and about 5 magazines are also published in the language, as well as internet-only publications such as "Beo!". The immigrants magazine Metro Éireann also has articles in Irish every issue, as do many local papers throughout the country, including university publications such as Trinity News.

    The Placenames Order (Gaeltacht Districts)/ (2004) requires the original Irish placenames to be used in the Gaeltacht on all official documents, maps and roadsigns. This has removed the legal status of those placenames in the Gaeltacht in English. Opposition to these measures comes from several quarters including some people within popular tourist destinations located within the Gaeltacht (namely in Dingle) who claim that tourists may not recognise the Irish forms of the placenames.

    However following a campaign in the 1960s and early 1970s, most roadsigns in Gaeltacht regions have been in Irish only. Maps and government documents did not change, though. Previously Ordnance Survey (government) maps showed placenames bilingually in the Gaeltacht (and generally in English only elsewhere). Unfortunately, most other map companies wrote only the English placenames, leading to significant confusion in the Gaeltacht. The act therefore updates government documents and maps in line with what has been reality in the Gaeltacht for the past 30 years. Private map companies are expected to follow suit.Beyond the Gaeltacht only English placenames were officially recognised (pre 2004). However, further placenames orders have been passed to enable both the English and the Irish placenames to be used. The village of Straffan is still marked variously as and , even though Irish has not been the spoken widely there for two centuries.

    Irish vehicle registration plates are bilingual: the counties of Ireland of registration is shown in Irish above the plate number as a kind of surtitle, and is encoded from English within the plate number. For example, a Dublin plate is surtitled Baile Átha Cliath and the plate number includes "-D-".

    From 1964 The Bible was translated at Maynooth for Roman Catholics under the supervision of Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta and was finally published in 1981.An Bíobla Naofa (Maynooth 1981) The Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer of 2004 is published in both English and Irish.

    Education

    The Irish language is a compulsory subject in government funded schools in the Republic of Ireland and has been so since the early days of the state.The exemption from Irish on the grounds of time spent abroad or learning disability is subject to Circular 12/96 (primary education) and Circular M10/94 (secondary education) issued by the Department of Education and Science (Ireland). The Irish Government has endeavoured to address the situation by revamping the curriculum at primary school level to focus on spoken Irish. However, at secondary school level, students must analyse literature and poetry, and write lengthy essays, debates and stories in Irish for the Leaving Certificate examination.

    In March 2007, the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, announced that more focus would be devoted to the spoken language, and that from 2012, the percentage of marks available in the Leaving Certificate Irish exam would increase from 25% to 40% for the oral component.Department of Education & Science, 2007-03-11, Minister Hanafin announces increase in marks for Oral Irish to 40% in exams. Retrieved on 2007-10-13. This increased emphasis on the oral component of the Irish examinations is likely to change the way Irish is examined. Independent, 2007-07-12. Pupils lap up hi-tech learning of Irish. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.Learnosity, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment: Ireland. Retrieved on 2007-10-13.

    Recently the abolition of compulsory Irish has been discussed and while some Irish people favour such a move, many do not. In 2005 Enda Kenny, leader of Ireland's main opposition party, Fine Gael, called for the language to be made an optional subject in the last two years of secondary school. This call drew widespread criticism from many quarters, although some have supported his call. Mr Kenny, despite being a fluent speaker himself (and teacher), stated that he believed that compulsory Irish has done the language more harm than good.

    A relatively recent development is the proliferation of gaelscoileanna (schools) in which Irish is the medium of education. By September 2005 there were 158 gaelscoileanna at primary level and 36 at secondary level in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland together (excluding the Gaeltacht, whose schools are not considered gaelscoileanna), which amounted to approximately 31,000 students. This has grown from a total of less than 20 in the early 1970s and there are 15 more being planned at present. With the opening of Gaelscoil Liatroma in County Leitrim in 2005 there is now at least one gaelscoil in each of the 32 counties of Ireland.

    The Irish Equality Authority recently questioned the official State practice of awarding 5-10% extra marks to students who take all their examinations through Irish.{{cite press release] 2006's 2006 conference on "Language Policy and Language Planning in Ireland" found that the study of Irish and other languages is declining in Ireland. The number of schoolchildren studying "higher level" Irish for the [Leaving Certificate dropped from 15,719 in 2001 to 14,358 in 2005. To reverse this decline, it was recommended that training and living for a time in a Gaeltacht area should be "compulsory" for teachers of Irish. 2006 RIA language conference report

    ===Northern Ireland===As in the Republic, the Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as .

    Attitudes towards the language in Northern Ireland have traditionally reflected the political differences between its two divided communities. The language has been regarded with suspicion by Unionists (Ireland), who have associated it with the Roman Catholic-majority Republic, and more recently, with the Irish republicanism movement in Northern Ireland itself. Many republicans in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, learnt Irish while in prison, a development known as the jailtacht.Allen Feldman. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland.U of Chicago P, 1991. Chapter 3. Although the language was taught in Catholic secondary schools (especially by the Congregation of Christian Brothers), it was not taught at all in State schools and public signs in Irish were effectively banned under laws by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which stated that only English language could be used.

    These laws were not repealed by the British government until the early 1990s. However, Irish-medium schools, known as gaelscoileanna, had already been founded in Belfast and Derry, and an Irish-language newspaper called Lá Nua ("New Day") was established in Belfast. BBC BBC Radio Ulster began broadcasting a nightly half-hour programme in Irish in the early 1980s called Blas ("taste, accent"), and BBC Northern Ireland also showed its first TV programme in the language in the early 1990s.

    The Ultach Trust was also established, with a view to broadening the appeal of the language among Protestants, although hardline Democratic Unionist Party politicians like Sammy Wilson ridiculed it as a "leprechaun language".{{cite news], promoted by many loyalists, was, in turn, ridiculed by nationalists (and even some Unionism (Ireland)) as "a DIY language for Orange Institution".{{cite news|url=http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2002/nov15_ulster_scots_rich_heritage.php|title=The rich heritage of Ulster Scots culture|publisher=newshound.com, quoting Irish News|date=16 November 2002), although those involved in promoting Ulster-Scots as a language are almost always unionist. Ulster-Scots is defined in legislation (The North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999) as: the variety of the Scots language which has traditionally been used in parts of Northern Ireland and in Donegal in Ireland.{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050514210600/http://www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_Affairs/Local_and_regional_Democracy/Regional_or_Minority_languages/Documentation/1_Periodical_reports/2002_5e_MIN-LANG_PR_UK.asp|title=Initial Periodical Report by the United Kingdom presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter|date=[1 july 2002 [2005)

    Irish received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Belfast Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, taking over the functions of the previous Republic-only .

    The British government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Irish in Northern Ireland.

    It has been claimed that Belfast now represents the fastest growing centre of Irish language usage on the island - and the Good Friday Agreement's provisions on 'parity of esteem' have been used to give the language an official status there. In March 2005, the Irish language TV service TG4 began broadcasting from the Divis transmitter near Belfast, as a result of agreement between the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office, although so far this is the only transmitter to carry it.

    The Belfast city council has designated the Falls Road area (from Milltown Cemetery to Divis street) as The Gaeltacht Quarter of Belfast, one of the four cultural quarters of the city. There is a growing number of Irish-medium schools throughout Northern Ireland (see picture above), and, at English-medium schools, it is becoming more and more common that Irish be taught to children.

    Under the St Andrews Agreement, the government has legislated to introduce an Irish Language Act. A consultation period ending on 2 March 2007 could see Irish becoming an official language, having equal validity with English, recognised as an indigenous language, or aspire to become an official language in the future.

    Outside Ireland

    An interest in the Irish language is maintained throughout the Anglophone world among the Irish diaspora and there are active Irish language groups in North American, United Kingdom, and Australian cities. In Australia, a network of people have established special Irish schools around the country teaching the language and music.

    The Irish language emigrated to North America along with the Irish people. Although Irish is one of the smaller European languages spoken in North America, it has cultural importance in the northeast United States and in Newfoundland (island), and according to the 2000 Census, approximately 26,000 people in the U.S. speak Irish at home.MLA Language Map Data Center, Irish Gaelic. Retrieved on 2007-07-22

    The Irish language came to Newfoundland in the late 1600s and was commonly spoken among the Newfoundland Irish until the middle of the 20th century. There is direct evidence to suggest that as high as 90% of the Irish in Newfoundland spoke only Irish as their mother tongue. Records from Newfoundland's courts, where defendants often required Irish-speaking interpreters, indicate that the dominant language of the Avalon Peninsula was Irish rather than English. Today it remains the only place outside of Ireland that can claim a unique Irish name (Talamh an Éisc, meaning Land of the Fish), and an area where Irish is natively spoken. In 2007 a number of Canadian speakers founded the first "Gaeltacht" outside of Ireland in an area near Kingston, Ontario (see main article Permanent North American Gaeltacht). The site (named Gaeltacht Bhaile na hÉireann) is located in Tamworth, Ontario and is to be a retreat centre for Irish-speaking Canadians and Americans.Gaelport, Irish at home in Canada, 17 February 2007Gaelport, First Gaeltacht abroad planned for Canada, 23 January 2007

    The Irish language reached Australia in 1788, along with English. In the early colonial period, Irish was seen as an opposition language used by convicts and repressed by the colonial authorities.Cumann Gaeilge na hAstráile. The Irish Langauge in Australia. Retrieved on 2007-10-13. Although the Irish were a greater proportion of the European population than in any other British colony, the use of the language quickly declined and is now almost unknown. As legal barriers to the integration of the Irish and their descendants into Australian life were progressively removed, English became the language of social advancement.

    In May 2007, Cambridge University in England started offering courses in Modern Irish and Medieval Irish. {{cite web] 2007 words are Irish-derived and there are arguments that [Australian English is more influenced by Irish than other varieties of English. There is a small movement to re-establish the language in contemporary Australia.Transcript of Lingua Franca of 1998-09-26, Why Learn Irish?. Retrieved on 2007-10-13. The Special Broadcasting Service transmits Irish language radio and television.

    Notes See also

    External links General

    Grammar and pronunciation
     

    Irish Language



     
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