Irish (Gaelic) is a Celtic language that was spoken across Ireland for millennia and produced one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Europe, dating to the 6th century. English began its spread in Ireland following the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century and accelerated dramatically after the Tudor conquests of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Great Famine (1845–1852) devastated the Irish-speaking rural west disproportionately, and mass emigration to English-speaking countries effectively shifted the linguistic balance toward English within a generation. Irish remains a co-official language alongside English, is compulsory in schools, and is used in daily life in Gaeltacht communities along the western seaboard. Despite English being the dominant everyday language, the Irish variety features distinctive grammatical structures and intonation patterns influenced by the native Irish tongue.
