Irish Language
County Cork has two Gaeltacht areas where the Irish language is the primary medium of everyday speech. These are Múscraí (Muskerry) in the north of the county, especially the villages of Cúil Aodha (Coolea) and Béal Átha an Ghaorthaidh (Ballingeary), and Oileán Chléire (Cape Clear Island), an island in the west.
There are 14,829 Irish language speakers in County Cork with 3,660 native speakers in the Cork Gaeltacht. In addition there are 6,273 who attend the 21 Gaelscoils and six Gaelcholáiste all across the county. According to the Irish Census 2006 there are 4,896 people in the county who identify themselves as being daily Irish speakers outside of the education system.
Ballingeary is an important centre for Irish-language tuition, with an active summer school, Coláiste na Mumhan, or the College of Munster.
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Famous quotes containing the words irish and/or language:
“Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is
taboo’d by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety;”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)