| Irish Gaelic or Gaelige is the ancient language of | | | | spoke,but within a short period of time Gaelic |
| Ireland and is derived from Old Irish and is part of | | | | became the dominant language of the Irish. |
| the Celtic branch of languages which include Scots | | | | However as discussed earlier Scots Gaelic and |
| Gaelic, Manx and Welsh. Irish is more closely | | | | Manx are very close to Irish,in particular the Ulster |
| related to Scots Gaelic and Manx than Welsh. | | | | dialect of Irish which shares many similar traits to |
| All the Celtic languages are more than likely | | | | Scots Gaelic. The number of Irish speakers today |
| rooted in a Proto-Celtic language which was | | | | is disputed in many quarters,varying from 70000 |
| spoken in many parts of Europe from 1000 BCE | | | | native speakers in the Gaeltacht to over 1 million |
| onwards. It would be virtually impossible for an | | | | in the whole of the Republic of Ireland who claim |
| Irish Gaelic speaker to understand a Welsh | | | | to understand Irish to good level. |
| speaker or the other way round due to the many | | | | Irish is compulsory for all children in Irish state |
| differences between the two languages.Although | | | | schools and is recognised by the European Union |
| they share a similar sentence structure,as I said | | | | as an official language. The Irish Diaspora accounts |
| previously they are not mutually intelligible. | | | | for many speakers of Irish all over the world,with |
| Gaelic is thought to have arrived in Ireland around | | | | many thousands of Irish American either learning |
| 500 BCE,nobody knows what ancient language | | | | the language or at good level of speaking and |
| the people occupying Ireland at the time | | | | understanding Irish Gaelic. |