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Irish Culture

Introduction

Since the people from Ireland traveled to the United States during the 18th and 19th century, there has been a significant influence of the Irish culture on the American population. As a result of the Irish Potato Famine, a number of people traveled to US for settlement. According to the U.S. census of year 2000, the only foreign ethnic group larger than Irish, was German. Most of the Irish Americans who emigrated to the U.S were Catholic. There has been a significant impact and integration of the Irish culture into the American population.

Discussion

Irish Language

The modern Irish or Irish Gaelic is a Goidelic language of Indo-European languages, which is historically spoken by the Irish. It is estimated that the number of people on the island who speak it as mother tongue ranges between 20,000 and 80,000, predominantly in rural West. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs of Ireland, in 2003, estimated that about 1, 500,000 people claimed to speak Irish language. In 2007, nearly 41 percent of the people in Ireland could speak the Irish language (Beaver, 202). Communities and regions where Irish is spoken are called Gaeltachtaí and most of them are Connemara in County Galway, including the Aran Islands. As a requirement of language study in public schools in the country, many speak it fluently as a second language. Although the main language throughout the island is English, there are several newspapers, magazines and radio stations in Ireland, especially in the Irish speaking region. The three dialects are main Irish Ulster in the north, Munster in the south and Connacht in central and western parts of the island. Irish Gaelic belongs to the division of Celtic languages (Dowd, 193).

The emigrants from Ireland are divided into three categories with respect to language spoken. There is a group of monolingual people who speak only Irish, bilingual who speak English and Irish, and monolingual who speak only English. It was estimated that in the 1890s, there were approximately 400,000 Irish speakers in the U.S. These people were mostly located states such as New York and Chicago along with other states such as Boston. There was a peak of Irish speakers in the state of New York as the number increased to 70,000 and 80,000 (Lee, 556). However, there was a reduction in the in the early part of the 20th century. Up to 1995, there were only 5000 Irish speakers in New York as compared to 40,000 in 1939 (Beaver, 202). On the other hand, Irish language stands at the 66th position out of more than 300 languages spoken in the U.S. today. It is estimated that there are more than nearly 30, 000 Irish speakers in the U.S. The most number of Irish Gaelic speakers are found in New York.

Irish Religion

During or after the 5th century, Christianity was brought to Ireland. St. Patrick's Day is associated with the history of the people of Ireland, who is considered as the Ireland's patron saint. The ...