There has been a long history of early Irish language learning in Ireland as a result of Government policy to promote greater use of Irish. All children learn Irish in school from age 4-18 years. The majority learn Irish as a subject, typically for 30-40 minutes per day, and the levels of competence achieved are mostly disappointing. Approximately…

Although the vast majority of people in Ireland have at least some knowledge of Irish, only a small minority speak it as a community language (in Gaeltacht areas in the west) or in the more widely dispersed Irish-speaking households in the large English speaking area. Primary schools have had a central role in language revitalisation since the…