The Irish language () is, since 2022, an official language in Northern Ireland. The main dialect spoken there is Ulster Irish (Gaeilge Uladh). Protection for the Irish language in Northern Ireland stems largely from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
In the 2021 census, Irish was the main language of 0.3% of the population aged 3 and up, an increase from 0.2% in the previous survey, while 12.4% of that population had some ability in Irish, also an increase from previous census results. As well, for the first time, the census asked the frequency of speaking Irish. 43,557 said they spoke Irish on a daily basis, which accounts for 2.43% of Northern Ireland’s population.
History
Language in Gaelic Ireland
As in other parts of Ireland, Irish was the main language in the region of present-day Northern Ireland for most of its recorded history. The historic influence of the Irish language in Northern Ireland can be seen in many place names, for example the name of Belfast first appears in the year 668, and the Lagan even earlier ("Logia", Ptolemy’s Geography 2,2,8). The Plantation of Ulster led to a decline in Gaelic culture, of which Irish was part – while some Scottish settlers were Scots-Gaelic speakers, English was made widespread by the plantation. Despite the plantation Irish continued to be spoken in non-planted areas until the mass immigration in the 19th century caused by economic factors (see below for further).
Irish Revival in the North
Intellectuals in Belfast took an antiquarian interest in Irish-language culture towards the end of the 18th century, and an Irish-language magazine Bolg an tSolair was published in 1795. The Ulster Gaelic Society was founded in 1830. Attitudes among the Anglican and Presbyterian middle class, however, changed in the second half of the 19th century as the Gaelic Revival began being associated with support for Home Rule or Irish Republicanism. The English-born MP for South Londonderry, Thomas Lea proposed an amendment to the draft of the second Home Rule Bill that would have prevented the passing of laws which would increase Irish language use in state schools, legal courts and other public spheres. A branch of the Gaelic League was founded in Belfast in 1895 with a non-sectarian and widely based membership, but the decline in Irish as a first language continued.
Irish was in sharp decline throughout the whole of Ireland from the mid-1800s. From the late 1600s and early 1700s, the Church of Ireland made some attempts to revive the declining Irish language. The church printed Bibles and Prayer Books in Irish, and some churches, and some Protestant clergymen like William King of Dublin, held services in the language. However, the English language had been the language of learning and the Roman Catholic Church continued to use Ecclesiastical Latin for Mass and English in sermons. English was the language of the industrial east of the island, and Irish started to become confined to the more rural west.
By the 1860s, of all the Roman Catholic seminaries, only St Jarlath's in Tuam was teaching in Irish. The Roman Catholic Church had, at that time, desired to "stamp out any lingering, semi-pagan remnants", which included the Irish language. Sir William Wilde in 1852 accordingly blamed the Catholic Church for the quick decline and was "shocked" by the rapid decline of both the language and Gaelic customs after the Famine.
The power of the English language, in business and learning throughout much of the world also influenced the decline of Irish in Ireland. A letter from Dennis Heraghty of Letterkenny in 1886 to the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language complained that the parents in his area all wanted their children to learn English. Bishop MacCormac of Achonry, also in 1886, suggested that "People are apathetic about the preservation of our ancient language" and, "They see that Shakespeare's tongue is the one in use in America and the Colonies."
Although there had been attempts and societies formed to reverse the declining trend for the language, it was not until the rise of the Gaelic League, founded in 1893, that any measure of success was achieved. By the 1851 census, only 23% of the population of Ireland still spoke Irish as a first language.
Douglas Hyde, in New York in 1905, said, "The Irish language, thank God, is neither Protestant nor Catholic, it is neither a Unionist nor a Separatist." By then, however, the Gaelic League was already being covertly infiltrated and politicised by operatives working for Thomas Clarke and the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
