Up until the 16^th century the entire population of Ireland spoke the Irish language. However, British rule saw a decline in the Irish language, as well as Irish customs and traditions. The language was further undermined following the Irish famine, as a large portion of the country’s Irish speakers had died or emigrated. Today, only a small portion of the population speaks the Irish language. However, there are Irish-speaking areas (known as Gaeltachts), where the language is spoken by up to 75% of the population. The largest of these areas are located in Donegal, Galway and Kerry, and visitors will notice that even the street signs are written in Irish.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 10:56 am and is filed under Ireland in General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.