The Irish Language: A Beginner’s Guide to Gaeilge
5 min read
Ireland has its own ancient language - Irish, or Gaeilge - and though English is what you’ll mostly hear, the older tongue is woven through the country’s place names, culture and identity. Understanding its story tells you a great deal about Ireland itself.
A Celtic language
Irish is a Celtic language, part of the same family as Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and the revived Manx and Cornish. It has one of the oldest written literatures in western Europe, stretching back over a thousand years. To English speakers it looks unpronounceable at first, but its spelling is actually highly regular once you learn the rules - the trouble is that those rules are nothing like English ones.
Decline and survival
For centuries Irish was the everyday language of most of the island. Its catastrophic decline came with English rule, and above all with the Great Famine, which fell hardest on the poor, Irish-speaking west and scattered its speakers abroad. By the late 19th century it was retreating to the western seaboard. The Gaelic Revival sought to save it, and after independence the new state made it a central part of national identity.
The Gaeltacht and today
Today Irish is the first official language of the Republic and an official language of the European Union. It is taught to every child in school, so most Irish people carry at least a “cúpla focal” (a couple of words). The areas where it survives as a community language - mostly along the western coasts of Donegal, Galway, Mayo and Kerry - are called the Gaeltacht, and there’s a vibrant Irish-language media including the television station TG4 and radio station RnaG. The language is far from dead; it’s spoken, sung, broadcast and increasingly cool among the young.
A few words to start
You can pick up the basics easily. Dia duit (“DEE-a gwitch”) is hello, literally “God be with you”. Go raibh maith agat (“guh rev moh OG-ut”) is thank you. Sláinte (“SLAWN-cha”) is the toast, “health”. Slán (“slawn”) is goodbye. And the most Irish word of all, craic, comes from the language too. Try a few - they’re warmly appreciated, and our Cúpla Focal tool will teach you a new one every day.
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