While Irish/Gaelic language is a thing it's mostly ceremonial and people on the street know it poorly, with no knowledge to even superficial conversation. Irish language has no use in Ireland. Even tho it is "official", it's useless
Just want to confirm this as an Irish person. The language is of symbolic / nationalist importance only. It's not used in everyday life except by hobbyists or residents of a few tiny 'gaeltacht' areas.
In other words, English is in practice the first language of virtually every Irish person, the vast majority of media, and all business in the country.
Fading. There have been major pushes to try to make it significant again but, as mentioned above, most Irish speak English daily with little change in that trend. The Gaeltacht will probably keep it going for many decades, though; which is/was not the case for Scottish Gaelic (which is in a much more precarious position).
I don't agree it's "useless" but I can see your point. We don't learn it for commerce or for historical/cultural insight. We learn it to know who were are.
Imagine telling a bunch of Jews that Hebrew was a load of nonsense and they're better off learning German, French or Spanish. I would agree though that the level of spoken Irish amongst the general population of Ireland is poor.
For them it's not about more opportunities it's about preserving something meaningful. Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.
The expulsion of the Jews is a specially sad part of our history, some families still keep the keys of their old houses after 5 centuries. A few years ago a law was passed so their descendants could claim Spanish nationality without the usual requirements applied to people from other nationalities.
Hebrew has a number of sacred books written in it. This us why it was preserved through centuries by faithful Jews, who read these books basically daily. It was and is a strong part of ethnic and religious identity.
A similar situation is with Quran and classical Arabic, even though it's not an everyday spoken language in (most of) Arabic world.
AFAICT Irish does not enjoy a similar status. If you want to hear a more or less alive Gaelic language in everyday use, visit rural Wales.
Hebrew was a language perpetuated by Jews around the world for centuries before the state of Israel was founded. Even today, Jews anywhere doing a bar mitzvah ceremony must read some Hebrew.
Sure, Israel is the country where Hebrew was restored as an everyday spoken language, but Israelis are not the only Jews for whom Hebrew is important.
Its imporrant either for religious reasons or national ones (zionism). There are many young jews in the U.S who are increasingly neither. Even if they support Israel they don't see a reason why they should actively live there or learn Hebrew. So most don't know Hebrew. Reciting a prayer yes, some do that.
I'm sure there are plenty of Jews outside Israel who have opinions on Hebrew, and I'm sure some are glad it is used even if they personally don't speak it.
Some are glad, others dont care. Depends on how religious you were brought up. Especially in the US, where younger jews are increasingly secularised, I don't think many care that much. Does Mark Zuckerberg care about Hebrew? Last I heard he learned Chinese.
In Northern Ireland there are small pockets of people learning it purely out of nationalist sentiment. Sinn Fein have been trying to force an Irish language act through for years which would see us become more like the south in that regard despite virtually nobody speaking it (the south, at least, has areas in the west of the country where it is actually a first language and therefore justifiable).
It's very frustrating because we do foreign languages so badly but instead of making an effort to improve our foreign language skills they're trying to push a largely dead language for purely symbolic reasons.
What you say is true for most of Ireland, but there are small parts of the country where Irish is a first language – the Gaeltacht. For example, Gweedore (in Donegal) where over 70% of the population have Irish as a first language and all its local schools use Irish as the language of instruction.
The British lawyers who rushed to get Irish qualifications so they could continue to practice in the EU were in for a rude awakening when they were told they had to physically reside in Éire and qualify in Gaelic, not just English.
