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Old Posted Oct 21, 2014, 3:13 PM
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Acajack Acajack is online now
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Province 2, Canadian Empire
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
Yeah, Aisling said there's still a region where Gaelic dominates and always has, officially or not, but for the rest of the island, it's long gone.

She said you can choose Gaelic at ATMs in Dublin, but wonders if anyone ever has.
I noticed that most public signage everywhere in Ireland is now in Gaelic first with English below in smaller letters. Public institutions often have Gaelic on their letterhead and Gaelic names printed first. But everything below that (and one can assume all of the work) takes place in English.

I know they've been teaching it in school for a few generations now and so the number of people who *can* speak at least a bit of Gaelic has risen considerably. But the number of people who actually use it as their everyday language remains extremely low I think. In the 2-3% range.

Irish friends have told me the only time they really use Gaelic is often on youth trips to continental Europe as a way of asserting their uniqueness. So Irish kids will speak Gaelic (what they refer to as the Irish language) amongst themselves when visting Paris or Rome, etc.

I believe Welsh in Wales is actually faring better than the Irish language in Ireland.
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