About what percentage of Ireland's population speaks Gaelic as a native language? Also, Welsh in Wales?

Question

About what percentage of Ireland's population speaks Gaelic as a native language? Also, Welsh in Wales?

Answer 1

All Irish children are taught Irish in school and most towns have a Gaelscoil where every subject is taught through the Irish language.  For children there and residents of the Gaeltachts (Irish speaking areas) Irish is an everyday language.  For the rest of us, because of our education experience, most people would be able to speak and understand some, even though it is not the language we use most.

Answer 2

id say about 1% of people use it everyday and are fluent in it!! everyone likes to say they can talk in Irish but not properly!! almost everyone knows how to say "I'm going to the shop", but nothing more advanced then that!

and just FYI, Stevie was wrong, you dont need honours Irish for uni!

Answer 3

There are dedicated regions in Ireland where Irish is spoken all the time called the Gaeltacht regions, these are mostly in the west of the country. Irish is taught in Ireland in all primary and secondary school and an honour in Irish in the Leaving Cert (similar to SAT's) is a requirement for entering University. So most Irish people have some Irish, but the only native speakers are usually from the Gaeltacht.

Answer 4

Around 21% of the population of wales are native welsh speakers, (Those are who use it everyday and spoke more of it when at home ) A further 10% have atleas a knowledge of welsh as do most people. Making an overall figure of aroudn 28 - 34%

Difference with wales is the language is assesd more on ability and is more accurate in my opinion than the irish one. Welsh is also spoken more by the community and used in more areas than irish. Welsh is also the only language which has a stornger future than their past ..

Answer 5

1.6 million said they spoke Irish (not gaelic btw) on the last census so roughly 38% of the republics population can speak the language but the percentage that speak it as a native language ahead of english would be much lower than that, probably no more than 1-2% i guess.

16.3% of the population of Wales can read, write and speak Welsh