English is the official language of Ireland. Irish (Gaelic) is also an official language but it is usually only spoken in areas along the west coast and in rural areas. English became very widely spoken in Ireland around the 17th century when the English had a really tight rein on the country. The language was subsequently weakened in the 19th century when many Irish people either died from the famine or some sort of disease or they moved out of the country.
In 1893, the Gaelic League was formed by two individuals to try and revive the language to preserve the arts and culture of Ireland. They were incredibly successful and soon managed to inculcate Irish into the primary and secondary curriculum, which became a requirement for admission into the National University of Ireland. According to the 2006 census, about 1,656,790 people in Ireland can speak Irish competently.
Other languages spoken by the minority in the country would be Ulster Scots, spoken by the Ulster Scots, Shelta, spoken by the Irish travellers and several languages brought in by the immigrants like Polish, Japanese, German, Russian and Arabic.
Moving on, now, to the education system of Ireland. The picture below shows the flow most students go through.
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| Trinity College Dublin |
The Irish government also encourages foreign students to study in Ireland. The e-brochure at this link: http://www.educationireland.ie/educationireland-offlinev/Education-Ireland-OFFLINE/FILES/educationireland-offline/educationireland-english.swf is an example of what they do to try and attract foreign students. It offers a guide to getting into Irish universities and boasts the high educational quality of Irish education and provides a map of all the top universities in the different cities. They also offer scholarships to foreign students, for example, the Fulbright Program which offers an exchange program for students from the U.S or the Waterford Institute of Technology Scholarships which are only awarded to non-EU students.
In the next entry, we’ll be exploring the types of leisure programs in Ireland.
Sites used as references for this post are as follows:
- http://www.cso.ie/census/census2006results/volume_9/tables_1-17.pdf
- http://www.yourirish.com/culture/language/
- http://www.educationireland.ie/irish-education.html
Image can be found at this link:
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