Should Irish language fluency be a requirement for Irish citizenship? ( Gaeilge / Gaelic)

I hit the streets of Galway to see how many people I could find who could speak Irish. Turns out, I found a good few! However, I got this comment on the video saying that fluency in Irish should be a requirement for citizenship, so I cut together some of my rejections during my time on Shop Street to illustrate how stupid that comment is. My thinking is that this person was trying to be xenophobic, not realising that a large proportion of the Irish populace is not "fluent" in Irish. In fact, there were some super interesting stats related to Irish in the last census, including the following:

Of a total population of 5,149,139 polled, only 12% were not Irish citizens yet 60% reported no ability to speak Irish. (Should we take citizenship from the remaining 48%? 👀)

Not only that, but people who "have Irish" but “never speak it” were up 55,000 to 473,000. (Should they lose citizenship? 👀)

Furthermore, 57,000 non-Irish citizens reported the ability to speak Irish; Australians in Ireland the highest with 15%, followed by Polish at 13% and Latvian at 13%. (Should they gain automatic citizenship? 👀)

Irish speakers are 55% female - Out of a total of 2.5M men in Ireland, only 844,000 reported being able to speak Irish. (Shall we boot out the remaining 1.7M men? 👀)

Younger generations are more proficient, with 62.5 per cent of those aged between 15 and 19 reporting that they spoke Irish either “very well” or “well” compared to 27% of Irish speakers aged 50-54. (Should we turf out the 73% in their 50s that can't speak it? 👀)

(I'm obviously being facetious, but I just want to point out the ridiculousness of this comment).

I'm all for the Irish language making a return and more people learning and feeling confident in speaking it, but everyone is welcome to learn and speak the language and those that wish not to, that's fine too. What we won't do is use our native tongue as an instrument of exclusion, thank you very much!

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[neadod]

It's taught wrong in schools. Too fixated on written passages and poetry. Should be about encouraging us to speak it and not being so bothered about making mistakes and just loving our language.

[jamesmcgarry]

If fluency in Irish were a requirement then the population would drop by 95%

[maddieb.]

You can’t make it a requirement until the population is competent at it. The first step is to make it culturally valuable and attractive for young people to learn it and value their heritage. You promote it incessantly, require labels and signage to put translations, and you teach it WELL in bilingual/immersive schools. You create places where people only speak Irish. And THEN if you have total saturation in competence you can make it a requirement. But making it a requirement without enabling and supporting citizens to learn it is not only impossible but kind of a ridiculous question to even ask

[tmc]

American here learning Irish in Texas and planning on visiting this summer to apparently speak it poorly to nobody lol 😅

[stephenlavin]

Every National School should have became a Gaelscoil in 1921.

[rincewindtwoflower]

Tá tú sárbheán! Ní raimh mé ag cainté le daoine ait ar an straid ach obair maith mo chara!

[rachelr.]

First of all, I don’t think being granted residency (at least short term residency) should be contingent on language skill. When I moved to Korea, my Korean was terrible. It took actually living in the country to become proficient. When it comes to requiring Irish language skills for Irish citizenship, it makes sense in theory. However, if I was working towards Irish citizenship and was forced to learn Irish when the average Irish person can’t even hold a conversation in Irish, I’d be hella annoyed.

[lagerku.]

I can only speak as a Welshman but I think language is an important part of cultural identity, especially the ones endangered, like any of the Celtic ones.
I was born in Wales and have lived in Wales all my life but not being Welsh-speaking makes me feel really disconnected from the country, its histroy and its culture and its people.
I am slowly learning Welsh now and I'd recommend all the celtic peoples to do the same. Without our languages, we might as well just say we're English.

[Themersive]

Been trying to learn a bit just for fun for eventual trip. It's definitely challenging.

[sarajane]

Aww that's a shame. A country should keep its language as the dominant language always.

[juanpaul-fux_u]

Ofcourse it should be mandatory...persevere your culture...heritage and history...irish people should be proud who they are

[Trilink-a]

In a perfect world I'd love a few counties adopting Irish as their Primary language, hate seeing the culture we can just barely cling to evaporate.

[christiansolidarity-owdk]

The problem is the lack of opportunities to use it in adulthood.
We need tax-breaks for retailers etc who have a bilingual service.

[cristinaruizcarrasquilla]

As a foreigner I think it should be mandatory once the entire population would be able to speak and write Irish at least at intermediate level. My girls born here ( we are from Spain) and they are learning Irish as other Irish children, in some aspects is easier for them as their are already bilingual ( English/Spanish/Irish)

[defilife]

I'm a black man residing in Ireland, and I asked my Irish friend if he could speak the Irish language. His response was no. I expressed my concern that the decline in Irish language speakers could have a swift impact on the originality and the population of core irish in years to come. Additionally, I mentioned that increasing the birth rate of core irish could be beneficial for the country. To my surprise, he jokingly labeled me a white supremacist, which I found quite amusing.😅

[Kelly_Ben]

My grandmother was from Ireland, and I've always been fascinated with it. I'm going to visit next year, and am learning as much Irish as i can, with the possibility of retiring there if it's even half as awesome as i imagine it to be.

[johnathonmontgomery]

is it not requirement to learn in school like here in wales. i used to sail with a scottish guy from the highlands. he said his village all spoke scottish Gaelic and nobody spoke english really

[Mahgentamuse]

Where is the best online material for learning?

[thesagebrushkid]

Similar story in Wales.
I wish more people spoke Welsh, it’s a beautiful language and it brings people together! Like I’ve had it a lot where people notice me speaking Welsh to the dog and they’ll stop and say shwmae and we get chatting! It’s lovely!

[imakeshapesnstuff]

Not a native but a long time resident. Grew up here as a kid and I was always exempt from learning Irish. As an adult now I'm actually trying to learn it because even though I'm not native, I've spent nearly my whole life here and really love the country and the language. I do think that roots are important, and I would love people to appreciate irish as a language rather than see it as a chore. All languages are hard to learn at first, but if more people spoke, more people would be able to practise and converse with eachother making it easier. I say continue the encouragement, Irish is a beautiful language