A movement to save the Irish language began in small pockets of people from all over the world. With an estimated 72 million emigrants from Ireland spread throughout different countries the Irish born, the Irish descendants and those who became enamored of the Irish culture have worked together in an effort to save the Irish language. Because of the hard work and study from many people all over the globe in 2008 the Irish government took a nation wide survey to ask its citizens how they wanted to re-establish the nation’s first and official language. The Irish language is now in the process of working its way off the Endangered Languages list.
One of the major supporters dedicated to saving Irish is Foras na Gaeilge. Since 1999, the Foras na Gaeilge has taken on the responsibility of promoting Irish throughout Ireland. The group developed the Good Friday Agreement that makes the promotion of the Irish language a joint effort between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. They were also instrumental in ensuring that Irish was added to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages making it a recognized language at the inception of the European Union. Foras na Gaeilge also has an educational outline program where being taught Irish from preschool through to Third Level is becoming more common in the local schools. Adults are offered immersion classes in the local Gaeltacht’s which are townships where Irish is the only language used.
Ireland also has Irish only media sources in an effort to promote the language. The TG4 television channel produces programs only in Irish. There are now three main newspapers that print only in Irish and they are: Lá Nua which is daily news, Foinse which is weekly news and Saol which is monthly news. In radio there is Raidió na Gaeltachta, while the BBC has started to air some programs in Irish such as Karen na hAoine. For Irish only magazines in print there are An tUltach, Comhar and Feasta while for online magazines in Irish there are Gaelport and Beo.
If you aren’t a citizen of Ireland there are other ways to either brush up on your Irish skills or to learn Irish as a new language all on your own. A good workable software solution to learning Irish on your own is through the Teach Me Irish! Language package. Teach Me Irish! is an interactive software program that engages the student in proper pronunciation with voice-recognition feedback through the lessons. This program also focuses on enabling the student to read Irish through twenty different stories that tests the verbal word recognition already covered. A student can also utilize the integrated audio dictionary in the program and they can even develop their own dictionary as the lessons progress. In addition to the Teach Me Irish! language package the Linguashop creators also offer On the Road Irish!, Speak! Irish and Audio Book Irish in MP3 format.