Comments on: Is wales more Welsh speaking than Ireland is Irish Speaking?

By: Christos Palmer

Christos Palmer — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:40:47 +0000

As languages go, both Welsh and Irish are at risk of dying out.

Out of all the Celtic languages, Welsh and Irish are the healthiest and most widely spoken Celtic languages, but things can change in the future.

By: Seán Ó Briain

Seán Ó Briain — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:44:17 +0000

I am an Irish speaker from Ireland.

There are about 150,000 – 200,000 Irish speakers. About 70% of the Gaeltacht population uses Irish regularly (daily/weekly). That’s about 65,000 people. 20% of them use it less regularly but are cometent speakers (about 20,000 more) About 40,000 attend Irish medium schools, and about another 50,000-65,000 outside of the gaeltacht or schools have a good command of the language. Those are close enough estimates.

Irish is a mandatory subject all through school for everybody in the south of Ireland. Although, only about 10% of those actually attain a decent command of it due to poor curriculum. All of my figures above include an ever growing population of Irish speakers in the north of Ireland.

Regards,
Seán

By: Sally

Sally — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 07:51:37 +0000

oh and S4C (pronounced S pedwar ec) is the welsh speaking channel

By: Sally

Sally — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:15:42 +0000

as an english speaker and a teacher in Wales, I suspect things in ireland and wales are very similar, in that both countries are striving to keep their languages alive and I do not blame them. It would be good if England strived to keep latin going and i think they do in Scotland with Scottish gaelic. I would like to learn these languages, and i think it is a good thing to keep them alive.

By: Sally

Sally — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:12:41 +0000

In North Wales from Caernarfon and above, every school, primary and secondary is first language Welsh and English is taught as a second language. From Bangor down to the south of North Wales, every school learns Welsh as a second language at least. In secondary school this can be opted out of after year 9. Colleges are now promoting that their teachers learn welsh as after 16, Welsh is not spoken in classes in college except where it is offered in welsh also. In Universities, some courses are offered in welsh as well but not all.

I cannot comment for ireland but on a recent holiday there, i was informed that all children learned irish in their primary years, so this is similar to Wales.

By: Daithí

Daithí — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:56:17 +0000

contrary to the first post, a lot of children receive their schooling through Irish (all subjects and not just Irish).

there are hundreds of such “Gaelscoileanna”.

Irish has a large number of non native, fluent as second language speakers.

Ireland has an Irish language TV station, and there are lots of teaching/learning resources available.

there is no doubt that Welsh is the most used Celtic language in daily life, but Irish is certainly the best of the rest.

Plenty of people are able to speak Irish, but unless the topic comes up, people will speak in English. I have had a few pleasant surprises when I have realised that some people I have known for years, and only ever spoken English to, turn out to be fluent or near fluent in Irish.

By: whogivesamonkeys

whogivesamonkeys — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:41:01 +0000

who gives a monkeys! I know there are around 600,000 people in wales who can speak welsh, many of them on a daily basis. I was brought up in a welsh speaking home and beleive the question should be ‘how do we preserve these great languages’?

By: GrahamH

GrahamH — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:37:14 +0000

There are more first language Welsh speakers than first language Irish speakers, but probably more second langugae Irish speakers than 2nd language Welsh speakers.

By: Beardo

Beardo — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:37:14 +0000

Wales can be divided in two parts – in the north, most speak Welsh; in the south most only speak English

"Wales is officially bilingual, with 21.7% of the population able to speak or read Welsh to some degree (based on the 2001 census questionnaire) although only 16% claim to be able to read, write and speak Welsh and a larger proportion having some knowledge of the Welsh language according to a 2004 language survey. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales

According to the 2006 census, 1,656,790 people (or 39%) in the Republic regard themselves as competent in Irish; though no figures are available for English-speakers, it is thought to be almost 100%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland#Languages

By: Doc

Doc — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:37:14 +0000

I’m American, and learning Irish, so I can’t answer your question with anything factual…but I thank you for asking it, and to those of you who responded. An excellent question, and I feel like I’ve learned something from all of you.