While Irish/Gaelic language is a thing it's mostly ceremonial and people on the street know it poorly, with no knowledge to even superficial conversation. Irish language has no use in Ireland. Even tho it is "official", it's useless
In other words, English is in practice the first language of virtually every Irish person, the vast majority of media, and all business in the country.
Imagine telling a bunch of Jews that Hebrew was a load of nonsense and they're better off learning German, French or Spanish. I would agree though that the level of spoken Irish amongst the general population of Ireland is poor.
For them it's not about more opportunities it's about preserving something meaningful. Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaeo-Spanish
The expulsion of the Jews is a specially sad part of our history, some families still keep the keys of their old houses after 5 centuries. A few years ago a law was passed so their descendants could claim Spanish nationality without the usual requirements applied to people from other nationalities.
A similar situation is with Quran and classical Arabic, even though it's not an everyday spoken language in (most of) Arabic world.
AFAICT Irish does not enjoy a similar status. If you want to hear a more or less alive Gaelic language in everyday use, visit rural Wales.
>Thanks, TIL!
And yet, you had the confidence to assert the above...interesting..
You mean Israelis right? Many jews outside Israel don't know Hebrew.
Sure, Israel is the country where Hebrew was restored as an everyday spoken language, but Israelis are not the only Jews for whom Hebrew is important.
It can be very much about telling you who you're supposed to be rather than the other way around.
Israel and Hebrew is actually a good example. Modern Hebrew was created pretty much solely for nation-building purposes (and with great success).
Jewish people are also pretty unique in having maintained a strong identity throughout the millennia without speaking a common language.
I wonder how many national identities would survive without one. I'd posit not that many.
It's very frustrating because we do foreign languages so badly but instead of making an effort to improve our foreign language skills they're trying to push a largely dead language for purely symbolic reasons.