• The most lasting legacy of the Celts was their language, which still survives in parts of Scotland, Wales, Brittany and Ireland. It was in Ireland that the Celts made their most lasting impression, since Ireland did not come under Roman rule. The Irish language replaced whatever language existed in Ireland since the coming of man here. With new archaeological finds the date of man's first appearance in Ireland is being constantly pushed further back to 5.000B.C.The discoveries in the Ceide Fields in Co. Mayo show the existence of a farming community in 53,000 BC We have no idea of the language these people, or the later Neolithic farmers, spoke or indeed of the language of the even later Bronze Age people who lived here from1800-800 BC (These Bronze Age people had gold and amber jewelry, a fact which interested us when we learned of the trade in Amber when in German history. Did our ancestors get their amber from the Wattenmeer?)
• We know that the Celts started coming to Ireland sometime from 600B.C onwards. We do not know if they came in groups, fleeing from Roman invaders or whether they came as farmers or traders but their influence is clear from the third century BC with the beginning of our Iron Age.
• Helen Litton in her book 'The Celts' maintains that it is the widespread acceptance of the language which proves that it was more than isolated travellers who came to Ireland because language can only be spread by groups of settlers and Celtic became the majority language.
• The Celtic language spoken in Ireland was called Q-Ceiltis because it lacked the 'P' sound of the Celtic language spoken in Wales, Cornwall and later, Brittany. This may have been the influence of the previous language spoken in the country e.g. the word 'pater' (the Latin for 'father') became 'atir' or 'athair' in Irish. This lack of a 'p' sound existed to the sixth century AD Most words with a 'p' sound were imported e.g. 'pingin' from the Vikings and 'paiste' from the French word 'page'.

This is generally seen in four phases

• There was no writing in Ireland before Christianity except for Ogham stones from the 4th century AD These stones have various notches to represent letters of the Roman alphabet and they were usually used as inscriptions on graves.
• Old Irish, therefore, would not have been accessible to us but for the work of a German scholar,Johann Zeuss(1800---1856). He studied the glossaries of the Irish manuscripts brought to the Continent by Irish monks in the 7th--9th centuries. These manuscripts would have been written in monasteries in Ireland and even contain the names of the scribes in some cases. The monks were writing in Latin but inserted comments in their native tongue on the sides of the manuscripts. These comments contain scraps of conversation or thoughts of the monk as he wrote. There are even a few verses of poetry in which the monk describes his surroundings and prays that the howling wind may keep the Vikings at bay. From these glossaries Zeuss re-constructed the Old Irish language. He published his Grammatica Celtica in 1853.
• With the coming of Christianity the Latin alphabet was introduced and even though the monks wrote mostly in Latin, there existed an educated group of laymen who began to use the Latin alphabet to preserve oral traditions and beliefs. This group consisted of the Fili or lawyers, a class of literate laymen unparalleled anywhere else in Europe. They used vernacular prose to record compensation claims, loans etc. In writing in the language of the people they can claim to have the oldest vernacular literature in Europe. Classical writers of Greece and Rome wrote in classical Latin and Greek, not in the vulgar language of the people. Writing maintained a certain standard and did not descend into dialect, which suggests the existence of an intellectual elite responsible for maintaining this standard.

• When the Vikings raids began in 795A.D. Many monasteries were destroyed and many scholars fled abroad. The standardising influence of these scholars grew less and many changes occurred in the language.
• It became more analytical e.g.' bhi me' instead of 'bhios'
• The Vikings introduced a lot of new words into the language--words to do with trade and sea-travel e.g. long, seol, scilling
• We borrowed a lot of words from the Latin too, especially words connected with religion --sagart, eaglais.
• The Norman invasion brought words from French--seipeal, paiste, garsun.

• Despite the success of the Norman Invasion, the language kept its position and the Norman culture was subsumed into the Irish culture. The Normans became 'more Irish than the Irish themselves'.
• In an effort to anglicize the country the Statutes of Kilkenny1366 sought to make English the language of administration. This failed and even though the old native monasteries lost their position to the new Continental orders, the position of the language was guaranteed by the development of the 'Bard-scoileanna'.
• These Bardic Schools laid strict rules for the writing of the language. This meant that the written language stayed the same until 1650. The 'fili' or poets had replaced the monks as the learned elite and were supported by the native aristocracy.

• The Tudor Conquest and the Cromwellian Plantations, however, were to make big changes in the position of the Irish language. Ireland's nobility fled the country and were replaced by an English -speaking aristocracy, alien in language, culture and religion. English became the language of administration and of those in power.
• The Penal Laws, which were anti-Catholic laws, prevented the native Irish from holding Government office, from entering the legal profession, the army, the navy and later on from buying land or taking leases longer than 31 years. This condemned the majority of Irish -speaking natives to poverty and powerlessness. The language was seen as the language of the poor and dispossessed and lost much in prestige. English was needed if you were to secure a good job or even to emigrate.
• The National School System, introduced in 1830, forbade the use of Irish in schools and further contributed to the decline of the language.
• The real nail in the coffin, however, came with the Great Famine 1845-1847.Of the one million people who died and the one million who emigrated, the majority were from the Western half of the island where the majority of Irish speakers were concentrated.
• The 1851 Census was the first census with details of the language spoken and in the

subsequent census we can see a dramatic fall in the number of people speaking Irish.

• By 1891 ,855 in 1000 were unable to speak Irish.

• With the rise of Nationalism in the 1890's an organisation, Conradh na Gaeilge, was founded to revive the language.
• When we got our independence, Irish was declared the first language.
• All official documents were printed bi-lingually.
• Irish was re-introduced into the schools and was, in fact, made compulsory.
• Fluency in Irish was necessary for jobs in the Civil Service, Public Service, and in Radio and television.
• Gaeltacht areas got financial help to encourage the speaking of the language.
• 1972: Radio na Gaeltachta was set up
• 1996: Telefis na Gaeilge came on air.

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