What are the Irish doing to revive Gaelic and how many Irish people can understand the Irish language?

Answer 1

We wouldn't really call it 'Gaelic' here in Ireland, just Irish.

It's taught in schools from nursery all the way up to secondary and is made compulsory to everyone (with the exception of those who have dyslexia and can choose not to).

TV shows, the news, newspapers, books and all sorts of other things are made in Irish to help promote the language and encourage younger people to speak it (that is why most books in Irish are for young children).

There is a TV channel called TG4 that has lots of shows in Irish. They mainly have Cartoons (like Spongebob and anime type) that have been dubbed in Irish. They also do news reports, dramas and Game Shows. All in Irish.
If you'd like to have a look, check it out here: http://www.tg4.ie/
(If you don't speak Irish there is a button on the top labeled "English" and it will translate the page for you).

Because of this, the majority of Irish people can speak Irish. The only people who don't are those who forgot what they were taught at school or people who have immigrated here.


In fact, there is a group of people who recently appeared on the news who are encouraging people to use the original Irish names for places (e.g. Baile Átha Cliath rather then Dublin) because their given English names mean absolutely nothing.