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94-471: The Gaelic revival ( Irish : Athbheochan na Gaeilge ) was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including folklore , mythology , sports , music , arts, etc.). Irish had diminished as a spoken tongue, remaining the main daily language only in isolated rural areas, with English having become the dominant language in

188-569: A magic lantern show, with steam and education transforming areas that "conquest and colonisation failed to effect in centuries". In serial form, the journal published MacAdam's compilation of 600 proverbs in Irish. But many other projects to gather up, and to breath new life, into the "fragments" of the Gaelic past were never brought to fruition. An English–Irish dictionary, compiled with Mac Domhnaill, and which ran to more than 1,000 manuscript pages,

282-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There

376-513: A "strange and brooding psychological novel , the first of the genre in Irish", about a Connemara man living in London. Ó Conaire 's works were controversial, addressing themes such as alcoholism and prostitution , which Ua Laoghaire and others within the movement found objectionable. Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),

470-571: A Plan for the Extension of the Movement to Preserve and Spread the Gaelic language in Ireland", and set about forming an organisation to help bring this about, together with Eugene O'Growney and J. H. Lloyd ( Seosamh Laoide ). The Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ) was founded on 31 July 1893. Hyde was elected president, MacNeill secretary, and Lloyd treasurer, and Thomas O'Neill Russell

564-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of

658-523: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It

752-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,

846-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of

940-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in

1034-591: A long association between northern Protestants" and the struggle to preserve and advance the Irish language". In 1795, with the aim of preventing "the total neglect and to diffuse the beauties of this ancient and much-acclaimed language", the Northern Star , the newspaper of the United Irishmen , produced the Irish-language grammar, dictionary and anthology, Bolg an tSolair. In the same year,

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1128-585: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in

1222-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on

1316-624: A prominent Irish scholar, and then Father Eugene O'Growney . In November 1892 Douglas Hyde gave a lecture to the National Literary Society entitled "The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland." He said that the Irish people had become almost completely anglicised , and that this could only be reversed through building up the language. Eoin MacNeill followed this up with an article in the Gaelic Journal , "A Plea and

1410-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by

1504-492: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within

1598-482: A series of publicly displayed "mottos" in Irish. These extended to "Ireland's Queen" a "thousand welcomes" from her "loving and loyal" subjects. MacAdam committed to the task of collecting Irish folklore and manuscripts, promoting the study of Irish, and publishing books in the language. Among the books produced by the society were Tomás Ó Fiannachta's translations into Irish of Maria Edgeworth 's moral stories, Forgive and Forget and Rosanna , and An introduction to

1692-598: A similar interest. With Tomás Ó Fiannachta, Robert Shipboy MacAdam , joint secretary of the society, published An introduction to the Irish language intended for the use of Irish classes in the Royal Belfast Academical Institution – a grammar for the school founded on progressive principles by William Drennan and other United Irish veterans. After the Ulster Gaelic Society ceased to operate in 1843, MacAdam employed

1786-418: A weekly newspaper, Fáinne an Lae . In March of the following year, following a dispute with the owner, this was replaced by An Claidheamh Soluis , with MacNeill again as editor. In 1901 MacNeill was replaced as editor by Eoghan Ó Neachtain, who was in turn replaced in 1903 by Patrick Pearse . The League also concerned itself with the folk music of Ireland , and was involved in the movement which led to

1880-545: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss

1974-603: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as

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2068-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of

2162-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years

2256-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described

2350-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it

2444-558: The Táin Bó Cúailnge in the Cork Weekly Examiner in 1900–1901, and followed it up with a series of modern renderings of ancient Irish tales such as Bricriu , Eisirt , An Cleasaidhe and An Craos-Deamhan , all of which eschewed scholarship in favour of colloquial, entertaining Irish. After Séadna , his best-known work is his autobiography, Mo Scéal Féin . All his works are written in what

2538-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act

2632-630: The Belfast Museum of which, as a member of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society he was a co-founder. It was to "enable strangers from other countries to judge for themselves the nature and extent of our ancient [Irish] civilisation". This led in turn to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology , an annual publication that MacAdam was to edit until the end of its first series in 1862. In his prospectus for

2726-607: The Catechism , and to preach, in Irish, "even though that tongue had been the shield and protector of their faith". MacAdam does not appear to have been in sympathy with the Catholic-majority moverment for national self-government. This was led by Daniel O'Connell , who though a Gaeilgeoir , declared himself "sufficiently utilitarian not to regret" the gradual abandonment of the language of his ancestors. When Queen Victoria visited Belfast in 1849, MacAdam composed

2820-470: The Gaelic Journal in 1894, and in November of that year he published the first instalment of Séadna , which was to become his best-known work. It was described by the journal as a "specimen of Munster Irish, one of the best samples, if not the very best, of southern popular Gaelic that has ever been printed." Séadna was the first major work of modern literature in Irish . Ua Laoghaire serialised

2914-814: The Irish Archaeological Society , one of the first text publication societies of Ireland, founded in 1840. In 1854 it merged with the Celtic Society, to form the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society. From 1853, translations of Irish literary works, particularly mythological works of the Ossianic Cycle —associated with the Fianna —were published by the Ossianic Society , in which Standish Hayes O'Grady

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3008-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")

3102-592: The Star advertised classes in the language offered by Pádraig Ó Loingsigh (Patrick Lynch) at the Belfast Academy . In 1808, one the harp festival's principal organisers, the physician and polymath, James MacDonnell established the Belfast Harp Society . In addition to "preserving the national music and national instrument of Ireland", it sought to procure and disseminate "information relative to

3196-568: The 'English-speaking world' or the 'English-speaking race' if they will. But let them not vex our ears by calling their writings Irish and national." Patrick Pearse said of the Irish Literary Theatre , recently founded by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory , that it should be "strangled at birth". An tAthair Peadar Ua Laoghaire (Father Peter O'Leary), a parish priest from Castlelyons in County Cork, began contributing to

3290-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English

3384-789: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as

3478-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which

3572-571: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme

3666-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish

3760-610: The Irish Language (1808) compiled by the Presbyterian minister William Neilson (Uilliam Mac Néill). From 1828/30, MacDonnell resumed this work as chairman of Cuideacht Gaoidhilge Uladh (the Ulster Gaelic Society). The society focussed on the contemporary Irish vernacular, rather than in the classical language of manuscripts, but abjured the religious evangelism that persuaded other Protestants to pursue

3854-678: The Irish establishment. When Douglas Hyde was invited to the planned Pan-Celtic Congress of 1900—to be held in Dublin—as a delegate of the League, the Coiste Gnótha (executive committee) refused to send any representative, though Hyde might attend as an individual if he wished. Hyde reluctantly declined to attend. The Irish Literary Revival was denounced because its works were written in English, not Irish, and therefore tended even more towards anglicisation. Eoin MacNeill wrote, "Let them write for

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3948-733: The Irish language intended for the use of Irish classes in the Royal Belfast Academical Institution – a grammar on which MacAdam and Ó Fiannachta collaborated. After the Ulster Gaelic Society ceased to operate in 1843, MacAdam employed the poet Aodh Mac Domhnaill (Hugh McDonnell, who worked with MacAdam in the Soho foundry) as a full-time scribe and collector of songs, folklore, and Irish-language manuscripts. MacAdam himself collected extensively on business trips throughout Ulster and north Leinster. He also found ready material among Irish-speaking immigrants to Belfast. He

4042-549: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis 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

4136-684: The Preservation of the Irish Language in 1876, and the Gaelic Union in 1880. The latter produced the Gaelic Journal . Irish traditional sports were fostered by the Gaelic Athletic Association , founded in 1884. The Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ) was established in 1893 by Eoin MacNeill and other enthusiasts of Gaelic language and culture. Its first president was Douglas Hyde . The objective of

4230-620: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,

4324-746: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He

4418-482: The best writer of the period. He wrote more than 400 short stories between 1901 and his death in 1928. His stories were darker than those of his contemporaries. According to his entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography , they deal with "isolation, conflict between good and evil, the tragedy of life, hatred, blindness, despair, and madness." He wrote one novel, Deoraíocht (Exile), described by John T. Koch as

4512-467: The boundaries can hardly be defined.... Every science may be said to have its archaeological province..... MacAdam concluded his editorial address in the first edition of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology by observing that "society in Ulster seems breaking up" with the "scattered the ruins of the ancient structure fast hurrying to decay". He likened the rapidity of change to one of the dissolving views of

4606-483: The classical language of manuscripts, they abjured the evangelism that persuaded other Protestant laymen and clerics to study the spoken language. MacAdam, who became the society's joint secretary, protested that efforts to "beguile the poor Catholics from their faith" had done "more harm to the language than foreign persecution for 300 years". At the same time, he faulted the Catholic clergy. They had neglected to teach

4700-718: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of

4794-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as

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4888-658: The family business. With his older brother, James MacAdam , in 1846 he established the Soho Foundry in Townsend Street At its height, before the death in 1861 of his brother (a naturalist and geologist who in the interim had become the first librarian of Queen's College , Belfast), the firm had a workforce of 250 and an international reputation for the production of turbine engines (horizontal water wheels developed in France by Benoît Fourneyron ). MacAdam

4982-430: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of

5076-424: The journal, MacAdam proposed broad multi-disciplinary vision of the subject. Archaeology, the science, par excellence, of "old things" like all other divisions of human knowledge, when rightly viewed, does not stand by itself but is continually coming into contact with other sciences........ It is not history; it is not philology; not ethnology; but these and many other subjects are interwoven with it so closely, that

5170-498: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has

5264-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of

5358-410: The language, history and antiquities of Ireland". With an additional subscription from MacDonnell, and with the enthusiastic support of Mary Ann McCracken (who is known to have studied from Charles Vallency's Irish grammar), and her Gaeilgeoir friend, the poetess Mary Balfour of Limavady , the Society organised Irish language classes. These were provided by James Cody. who used An Introduction to

5452-425: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,

5546-543: The league was to encourage the use of Irish in everyday life in order to counter the ongoing anglicisation of the country. It organised weekly gatherings to discuss Irish culture , hosted conversation meetings, edited and periodically published a newspaper named An Claidheamh Soluis , and successfully campaigned to have Irish included in the school curriculum. The league grew quickly, having more than 48 branches within four years of its foundation and 400 within 10. It had fraught relationships with other cultural movements of

5640-406: The majority of Ireland. Interest in Gaelic culture was evident early in the nineteenth century with the formation of the Belfast Harp Society in 1808 and the Ulster Gaelic Society in 1830, and later in the scholarly works of Robert Shipboy MacAdam , John O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry , and the foundation of the Ossianic Society . Concern for spoken Irish led to the formation of the Society for

5734-399: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed

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5828-497: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to

5922-409: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them

6016-522: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as

6110-429: The organisation of the Feis Ceoil (Festival of Music) by Annie Patterson in 1897. The League's relations with contemporary cultural movements were strained, and sometimes hostile, despite the fact that some of the League's leaders were on friendly terms with those movements. Pan-Celticism was viewed with suspicion by many members because its leaders in Ireland, especially Lord Castletown , were closely associated with

6204-448: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish

6298-505: The poet Aodh Mac Domhnaill (Hugh McDonnell) as a full-time scribe and collector of songs, folklore, and Irish-language manuscripts. MacAdam himself collected extensively, sometimes finding his material among Irish-speaking immigrants to Belfast. Early pioneers of more rigorous Irish scholarship were John O'Donovan (who was to become professor of Celtic Languages at Queen's College , Belfast), Eugene O'Curry and George Petrie . O'Donovan and O'Curry found an important outlet for their work in

6392-415: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After

6486-436: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )

6580-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need

6674-452: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in

6768-401: The same time rejected the idea that only native speakers like Ua Laoghaire could produce "Irish Irish". He produced two books of short stories, Íosagán agus Scéalta Eile (1907) and An Mháthair agus Scéalta Eile (1916). His collection of poems, Suantraithe agus Goltraithe (1914) contains his most famous poem, " Mise Éire " ("I am Ireland"). Pádraic Ó Conaire was arguably

6862-783: The time, such as the Pan-Celtic movement and the Irish Literary Revival . Important writers of the Gaelic revival include Peadar Ua Laoghaire , Patrick Pearse ( Pádraig Mac Piarais ) and Pádraic Ó Conaire . The Belfast "renaissance of Irish music", that saw the staging of the Belfast Harpers Assembly in July 1792, has been seen as "the precursor by a century of the Irish Gaelic Revival", and to have been "the beginning of

6956-726: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at

7050-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By

7144-596: Was Francis Joseph Bigger , a key figure in a new "northern revival" of the Irish language. The following year, shortly after MacAdam's death, this was given further impetus by the establishment of the first branch of the Gaelic League in Belfast. Even in the wake of Gladstone 's Second Home Rule Bill , it was an initiative still able to straddle the city's political/sectarian divide. More than half of its first committee were Protestants. Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich

7238-452: Was a member of the Belfast Harp Society . At the school it would have been further stimulated by the Presbyterian minister, Hebrew and classical scholar, the Rev. William Neilson, author of An Introduction to the Irish Language (1808). MacAdam, who in time was said to be fluent in a dozen languages, perfected his command of Irish in course of his extensive travels across Ireland on behalf of

7332-637: Was a member of the Non-Subscribing First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street. MacAdam followed Samuel Neilson into Cuideacht Gaoidhilge Uladh (the Ulster Gaelic Society) when it was formed in 1828 under the chairmanship of Dr James MacDonnell and with the patronage of the Arthur Hill, Marquess of Downshire. While the members were interested in the contemporary Irish vernacular, rather than in

7426-400: Was active. The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language was formed in 1877 by, among others, George Sigerson and Thomas O'Neill Russell . The secretary of that society, Father John Nolan, split with it in 1880 and formed the Gaelic Union, of which the president was The O'Conor Don , and whose members included Douglas Hyde and Michael Cusack . Cusack's interest in Gaelic culture

7520-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from

7614-559: Was among those elected to the council. The Gaelic League held weekly meetings that were a combination of classes and conversation. Its focus on the vernacular form of language and modern literature distinguished it from the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, The Celtic Society and the Gaelic Union. Within months it had branches in Cork and Galway. After four years it had 43 branches, and after ten years more than 400. Although it

7708-567: Was born to Jane Shipboy (1774–1827) and her husband James MacAdam (1755–1821), who lived next to their hardware shop in High Street, Belfast. Before being apprenticed to his father, he was educated at the new Belfast Academical Institution , a school founded on progressive principles by the former United Irishman William Drennan , and other veterans of the radical politics of the 1790s. His first Irish language influence may have been his uncle, Robert MacAdam, who collected Gaelic songs and

7802-684: Was bought for the Royal Irish Academy by Maxwell Close and is still held by the Academy, under the name of "The Mac Adam and Reeves Collection". Other of his papers papers are held by the Belfast Central Library and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland . In 1894, MacAdam endorsed and supported the revival of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. Its editor, after an hiatus of thirty years,

7896-606: Was buried in Knockbreda churchyard . Although his friends did eventually create an annuity that allowed him to live in reasonable comfort, MacAdam's last years had been dogged by ill health and poverty. In 1894, the Townend Street foundry had been forced to close. In 1889, he sold an important collection of Irish manuscripts to the Irish antiquarian and Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore , William Reeves . In 1892, after Reeves's death, this collection

7990-475: Was called caint na ndaoine (the language of the people). Patrick Pearse ( Pádraig Mac Piarais ), the editor of An Claidheamh Soluis —and later a revolutionary leader in the Easter Rising —wrote poetry, short stories and plays. He is considered the first modernist writer in Irish. Pearse rejected what he called the imposition of "dead linguistic and literary forms on a living language", but at

8084-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build

8178-504: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Robert Shipboy MacAdam MacAdam

8272-406: Was more concerned with fostering the language in the home than with teaching it in schools, it was nonetheless successful in having Irish added to the curriculum; the number of schools teaching it rose from about a dozen in the 1880s to 1,300 in 1903. The League took over the Gaelic Journal in 1894, when O'Growney retired as editor, with MacNeill replacing him. In January 1898 it began publication of

8366-573: Was never published (and lay undisturbed in the Queen's University Library until 1996). Neither was his collection of 400 songs in Irish, or his proposed Irish language newspaper. MacAdam's work and contributions were nonetheless acknowledged by the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society , which he had attended from the age of 13: in 1888 the society elected him president. Robert MacAdam did not marry. He lived with his brother at 18 College Square East, Belfast, where he died on 3 January 1895. He

8460-405: Was not restricted to the language; he took a keen interest in the traditional games of Ireland, and in 1884, with Maurice Davin , he would found the Gaelic Athletic Association to promote the games of Gaelic football , hurling and handball . In 1882 the Gaelic Union began publication of a monthly journal, the Gaelic Journal . Its first editor was David Comyn; he was followed by John Fleming,

8554-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in

8648-693: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in

8742-617: Was to discover, for example, that Charlement Street (now buried under the Castle Court shopping centre ) was inhabited exclusively by Irish-speaking basket-makers from Omeath . MacAdam was the prime mover in introducing a question on the knowledge of Irish in the 1851 Census. In 1852, he and his brother organised a major exhibition of for a conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at

8836-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,

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