irish is spoken as a first language in united kingdom.
where is irish spoken as a first language?
united kingdom
english was brought to ireland as a result of the norman invasion of ireland of the late 12th century. initially, it was mainly spoken in an area known as the pale around dublin, with mostly irish spoken throughout the rest of the country. by the tudor period, irish culture and language had regained most of the territory lost to the invaders: even in the pale, "all the common folk… for the most part are of irish birth, irish habit, and of irish language". some small pockets remained predominantly english-speaking; because of their sheer isolation their dialects developed into later (now extinct) dialects known as yola in wexford and fingallian in fingal, dublin. these were no longer mutually intelligible with other english varieties. however, the tudor conquest and colonisation of ireland in the 16th century marked a forced decline in the use of the irish language. by the mid-19th century, english was the majority language spoken in the country. it has retained this status to the present day, with even those whose first language is irish being fluent in english as well. today, there is only a little more than one percent of the population that speaks irish natively. english is one of two official languages, along with irish, of the republic of ireland, and is the country's working language.
hiberno-english
irish language in newfoundland





























the irish language was once widely spoken on the island of newfoundland before largely disappearing there by the early 20th century. the language was introduced through mass immigration by irish speakers, chiefly from counties waterford, tipperary and cork, and newfoundland subsequently became the only place to have a distinct irish-language name outside europe: "talamh an éisc" ("land of the (one) fish"). the irish spoken in newfoundland was said to resemble the dialect spoken in munster in the eighteenth century.





























section::::irish immigration.
irish language in newfoundland