THE IRISH LANGUAGE TODAY

I have an Irish friend who recently finished her degree to be a teacher of Irish (Gaelic).  Unfortunately, she finished her degree just when the recession was hitting and many teachers were laid off, and therefore she was not able to get a teaching position.  She lives in my town, about a block away from me, and has been my friend and "guardian angel" while I've been here in Ireland.

Last night she came to our house and my husband and I were talking to her about the Irish language. Irish is my friend's first language and she said she even has times where she struggles to think of the English word.  She said there are many places in Ireland that the Irish language is spoken as a "first language".  These places are called "Gaeltacht Regions" and places with the most Gaeltacht concentration are:
1) County Galway, including Connemara, the Aran Islands, Carraroe, and Spiddal
2) County Donnegal, in the part which is known as Tyrconnell
3) Dingal Penninsula in County Kerry
My friend said that if anyone in her family speaks English in their home, it is considered an insult to the family.  All of them speak English, but she said she grew up speaking Irish.  She had to take 30 minutes of English every day at school, but the rest of the time she spoke Irish.  It wasn't' until she left home at 17 that she began speaking English every day. 
Today, all Irish children learn Irish in school. I spoke to a lady at my church who is in her 60's.  She said she took Irish in school when she was little but could hardly remember how to speak it today.  But the younger generations are keeping the language alive.  I hear lots of high school and college age kids walking down the streets of my town speaking Irish today.  I also hear lots of young mothers speaking Irish to their little children. There are some controversies of whether Ireland should try to keep the Irish language alive.  My Irish friend tells me that the school kids hate to learn Irish.  But are there a lot of subjects that kids hate to take in school?  I hope Ireland keeps the Irish classes in their school system so this language will not die out like the Latin language did.  If you look on the sign in the picture above, you'll see that Ireland prints all their traffic, tourist, city and street signs in English and Irish.  For the town and street signs, the Irish is usually on the top and the English below, so you have to learn to look below the Irish, or you'll be past the sign before you can read what it says (if you're driving in a car).  Irish is a very unique language.  Click on my Irish widget to hear what Irish sounds like.  If you click "More about this word" it will take you to another widget on their website that you can click and hear the word of the day used in a sentence.