Editing Ireland (section)

===Languages===
{{main|Languages of Ireland}}
[[File:Irish speakers in 2011.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Proportion of respondents who said they could speak Irish in the Ireland census in 2011 or the Northern Ireland census in 2011]]
The two official languages of the Republic of Ireland are Irish and English. Each language has produced noteworthy literature. Irish, though now only the language of a minority, was the vernacular of the Irish people for thousands of years and was possibly introduced during the [[Iron Age]]. It began to be written down after Christianisation in the 5th century and spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man, where it evolved into the [[Scottish Gaelic]] and [[Manx Language|Manx]] languages, respectively.

The Irish language has a vast treasury of written texts from many centuries and is divided by linguists into [[Old Irish]] from the 6th to 10th century, [[Middle Irish]] from the 10th to 13th century, Early Modern Irish until the 17th century, and the Modern Irish spoken today. It remained the dominant language of Ireland for most of those periods, having influences from [[Latin Language|Latin]], [[Old Norse]], [[Anglo-Norman language|French]] and English. It declined under British rule but remained the majority tongue until the early 19th century, and since then has been a minority language.

The [[Gaelic Revival]] of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had a long-term influence. Irish is taught in mainstream Irish schools as a compulsory subject, but teaching methods have been criticised for their ineffectiveness, with most students showing little evidence of fluency even after 14 years of instruction.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://universitytimes.ie/?p=1707 |title=Head-to-Head: The Irish Language Debate |work=UniversityTimes.ie |date=21 February 2011 |access-date=31 March 2015 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402150444/http://www.universitytimes.ie/?p=1707 |url-status=live }}</ref>

There is now a growing population of urban Irish speakers in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, especially in Dublin<ref name="schism">{{cite news|last=Ó Broin|first=Brian|date=16 January 2010|title=Schism fears for Gaeilgeoirí|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/schism-fears-for-gaeilgeoir%C3%AD-1.1269494|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|access-date=16 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216211616/https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/schism-fears-for-gaeilgeoir%C3%AD-1.1269494|archive-date=16 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>John Walsh; Bernadette OʼRourke; Hugh Rowland, ''[https://www.forasnagaeilge.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/New-speakers-of-Irish-report.pdf Research Report on New Speakers of Irish]'' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308094820/https://www.forasnagaeilge.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/New-speakers-of-Irish-report.pdf |date=8 March 2021 }}</ref> and Belfast,<ref>{{cite news |last=McKinney |first=Seamus |title=Belfast Gaeltacht inspired Irish speakers all over North |work=Northern Ireland News |publisher=[[Irish News]] |date=16 May 2020 |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/05/16/news/belfast-gaeltacht-inspired-irish-speakers-all-over-north-1940540/ |access-date=7 May 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621180615/https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/05/16/news/belfast-gaeltacht-inspired-irish-speakers-all-over-north-1940540/ |url-status=live }}</ref> with the children of such Irish speakers sometimes attending Irish-medium schools ({{lang|ga|[[Gaelscoil]] or Gaelscoileanna}}). It has been argued that they tend to be more highly educated than monolingual English speakers.<ref name="cso.ie">{{cite web |url=http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011profile9/Profile,9,What,we,know,Press,Statement.pdf |title=Press Statement: Census 2011 Results |website=CSO.ie |publisher=Central Statistics Office |date=22 November 2012 |location=Dublin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328211550/http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011profile9/Profile,9,What,we,know,Press,Statement.pdf |archive-date=28 March 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=6 October 2017 }}</ref> Recent research suggests that urban Irish is developing in a direction of its own, both in pronunciation and grammar.<ref name="irishtimes.com">{{cite news |first=Brian |last=Ó Broin |title=Schism fears for Gaeilgeoirí |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0116/1224262447899.html |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |access-date=31 March 2015 |archive-date=21 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021041737/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0116/1224262447899.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Traditional rural Irish-speaking areas, known collectively as the {{lang|ga|[[Gaeltacht]]}}, are in linguistic decline. The main {{lang|ga|Gaeltacht}} areas are in the west, south-west and north-west, in Galway, Mayo, Donegal, western Cork and Kerry with smaller {{lang|ga|Gaeltacht}} areas near [[Dungarvan]] in Waterford and in Meath.<ref>{{cite web |title=Where are Ireland's Gaeltacht areas? |website=FAQ |publisher={{lang|ga|[[Údarás na Gaeltachta]]}} |date=2015 |url=http://www.udaras.ie/en/faoin-laithrean-seo/ceisteanna-coitianta |access-date=9 September 2015 |archive-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907174242/http://www.udaras.ie/en/faoin-laithrean-seo/ceisteanna-coitianta/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Hiberno-English|English in Ireland]] was first introduced during the Norman invasion. It was spoken by a few peasants and merchants brought over from England and was largely replaced by Irish before the Tudor conquest of Ireland. It was introduced as the official language during the Tudor and Cromwellian conquests. The Ulster plantations gave it a permanent foothold in Ulster, and it remained the official and upper-class language elsewhere, the Irish-speaking chieftains and nobility having been deposed. Language shift during the 19th century replaced Irish with English as the first language for a vast majority of the population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Spolsky |first=Bernard |title=Language policy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2004 |page=191 |isbn=978-0-521-01175-4}}</ref>

Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system<ref>{{cite web |title=Table 15: Irish speakers aged 3 years and over in each Province, County and City, classified by frequency of speaking Irish, 2006 |website=Census 2006 |volume=9 – Irish Language |publisher=Central Statistics Office |url=http://beyond2020.cso.ie/Census/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=75639 |access-date=9 November 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227165829/http://beyond2020.cso.ie/Census/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=75639 |archive-date=27 February 2009 }}</ref> and 38% of those over 15 years are classified as "Irish speakers". In Northern Ireland, English is the de facto official language, but official recognition is afforded to Irish, including specific protective measures under Part III of the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]]. A lesser status (including recognition under Part II of the Charter) is given to [[Ulster Scots dialects]], which are spoken by roughly 2% of Northern Ireland residents, and also spoken by some in the Republic of Ireland.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/1999/Community_Relations/USPKULST.html |title=Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, 1999 |publisher=Access Research Knowledge Northern Ireland (Queen's University Belfast / Ulster University) |date=9 May 2003 |access-date=20 October 2013 |archive-date=8 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108123922/http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/1999/Community_Relations/USPKULST.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Since the 1960s with the increase in immigration, many more languages have been introduced, particularly deriving from Asia and Eastern Europe.

Also native to Ireland are [[Shelta language|Shelta]], the language of the nomadic [[Irish Travellers]],<ref name=McArthur>{{cite book|editor-last=McArthur |editor-first=Tom |title=The Oxford Companion to the English Language |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-19-214183-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00mcar }}</ref> [[Irish Sign Language]], and [[Northern Ireland Sign Language]].