Status of the Irish language

The official status of the Irish language has remained high in the Republic of Ireland from foundation. This reflects the dominance of the language in Irish cultural and social history until the nineteenth century and its role in Irish cultural identity. In 2022, strong recognition was added in Northern Ireland also. In the 2022 Republic of Ireland census 1,873,997 people or 39.8% of the population in the Republic of Ireland said that they had some ability to speak Irish, out of an overall population of 5,149,139. In Northern Ireland 228,600 people (12.4%) have some ability in the Irish language according to the 2021 census for Northern Ireland, out of a population of 1,903,175 people. It has been found, however, that while ideological support for Irish is high, actual routine use is very low, and that there is very little or rare correlation between personal fluency in the language and the perceived value of Irish as an identity-marker.^[1] Nevertheless, the language benefits from the support of activists who continue to use it as a social and cultural medium.

On 13 June 2005, Irish was made an official language of the European Union, the new arrangements coming into effect on 1 January 2007. On 1 January 2022, Irish received full status as a working language of the EU joining the other 23 official languages of the EU.^[2][3][4] It is, however, among those least routinely spoken of the official languages of the European Union with there being only 1 Irish speaking MEP out of the total number of 13 Irish MEP's in the 2019–2024 European Parliament.^{[better source needed][5]}

Traditional Irish speakers in the areas known as the Gaeltacht have usually been considered as the core speakers of the language. Their number, however, is diminishing, and some assert that they are being replaced in importance by fluent speakers outside the Gaeltacht, including both second-language speakers and a small minority who were raised and educated through Irish. Such speakers are predominantly urban dwellers.