How millennials are breathing fresh life into the ancient Irish language

New generations of Irish people are engaged in a very 21st century revival of their native tongue – Ben Kelly discovers how Gaelic is being dragged out of the classroom and into the outside world

(Illustrations by Izzy Orton)

Irish is making a comeback. “This might sound dumb,” wrote Twitter user @dalteparin in August 2018, “but...what if we all just start saying simple phrases like ‘go raibh maith agat’ [thank you] to each other every day to normalise speaking irish and slowly reintegrate her into our day-to-day lives.”

The tweet struck a chord, and quickly went viral. Within days, it appeared across Facebook and Instagram too. It tapped into something fairly unique about the native language of Ireland; while millions around the globe feel a patriotic responsibility towards its survival, most of us are guilty of its neglect.

Irish (Gaelic) enjoys a rich history, with texts dating back to the fifth century. It is believed that as late as 1800, it was still the main language for a majority of people on the island. It suffered a slow demise across centuries of British colonial rule, where it was stamped out through the changing of place names, discrimination and prejudice against speakers, and the promotion of English in public life. When the Great Famine of the 1850s saw millions starved and forced to emigrate, the number of speakers plummeted further.