Irishlanguagematters.com News
By: holly1111974
https://irishlanguagematters.com...In reply to <a href="https://irishlanguagematters.com/comment-page-1/#comment-43">Anonymous</a>.
Thanks for your comment. I have to disagree with most of it. I think anything that promotes Irish is good and the #100DaysofGaeilge challenge has got a lot of positive feedback.
Irish is still the second most spoken language. there are 70,000 daily speakers outside the education system in the 26 counties. There are 200,000-300,000 regular speakers (26 counties) and there are about 60,000 children in Irish medium education (32 counties). I don't know the speaker numbers in the North but Belfast is probably 20 years ahead of Dublin as a hub for Irish. On top of that there are many more less regular speakers.
If the last point refers to migration, I would say that I have been inspired to learn and use Irish by several people of a non-traditional Irish background. Many people who arrive in Ireland and are multilingual have a positive attitude to Irish, name their kids in Irish and encourage their children to learn Irish. I have seen this in my own community. Further, attitudes towards the Irish language were far worse before we had any major immigration in Ireland - there were more negative stereotypes about Irish when we had a more homogenous society.
7.1.2025 22:46By: holly1111974
https://irishlanguagematters.com...By: Anonymous
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<p>I wish this initiative well.</p>
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<p>But it is utterly irrelevant to the reality of Ireland in 2025.</p>
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<p>At the turn of the century. Irish was the second most commonly spoken language on the island.</p>
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<p>Now it's not in the Top Ten.</p>
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<p>You don't strengthen a vulnerable language by importing dozens of stronger languages.</p>
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7.1.2025 17:05By: Anonymous
https://irishlanguagematters.com...