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:
“We Irish are too poetical to be poets; we are a nation of brilliant failures, but we are the greatest talkers since the Greeks.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)