Four in ten can speak the Irish language, census reveals

ANYONE who thinks our native tongue is a dead language should take a look at last year’s census – which revealed that almost four in ten people can speak it.

An impressive 1.76million people aged over two said they could speak Irish – almost 40% of the population. The figure represents a slight decline of 13,000 (-0.7%) on the 2011 census.

More females (968,777) than males (792,643) stated that they could speak Irish, the Central Statistics Office’s latest census report said.

Sadly, of the people who said they could speak Irish, almost one in four – 418,420, or 24% – said they never spoke it. And more than 500,000, or 32%, said they only spoke it within the education system.

However, the high numbers overall were welcomed by Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, who said even yoga classes should be given as Gaeilge. ‘The fact that almost 40% of people indicted that they could speak Irish is to be welcomed, and just shows the importance of providing opportunities for those Irish speakers to use the language in daily life,’ he said.

‘Plenty of people have Irish, they want to use Irish, and they do so when given the chance.

‘When geofilters were made available in Irish on Snapchat earlier this year, for example, over 10million snaps were sent as Gaeilge within one month of their release.’

Mr de Spáinn added: ‘We need to be supportive of those looking to use Irish in their daily lives, and provide quality services in Irish to those who want to use them, both in the private and public sector.’