Amid a boom in Irish culture across music, literature, film and fashion, the Irish language – Gaeilge – is also experiencing a revival. Once the majority’s native tongue, it was assailed and diminished as a daily, working, spoken language under British colonialism and became largely confined to rural west coast districts for much of the 20th century, kept alive by generations of families. But over recent decades the number of schools teaching the national curriculum exclusively through Irish has risen significantly, from fewer than 20 in the 1970s, to more than 200 today. The 2022 census showed a 6% increase in the number of people able to speak Irish compared with 2016. Irish is a core subject on the curriculum and compulsory in all schools.
Yet in the academic year of 2024-25, a record number of pupils – 14% of the post-primary school population – were granted exemptions from studying Irish, a record number. This makes me sad for the young people who will miss out – not just on the growing professional opportunities it provides, but the richness of the language and the window into Irish culture it cracks open.
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