I remember seeing an old discussion on the irish in dublin on IGT but cant find it. when did it cease to be the language in Dublin city? Was it ever the language of the city? The settlement only became a town through the vikings who traded? So i assume it would have been vibrant with many languages, was irish ever dominant? If so when did it cease to be? And what about the county? I assume it would have been the peoples language outside of the settlement and i remember reading it survived in pockets of what then would have been remote villages up until the 17th century?

And information or links would be very helpful thank you

Technically, it was banished from the whole Pale of Settlement (the area around and including Dublin) by the statutes of Kilkenny in the 14th century, but from what I have read the statutes didn't really have much effect, although from then on there was an increase in the usage of English. It probably finally disappeared from most of Dublin (except for those involved in the Gaelic Revival movement, of course, and immigrants from the Gaeltacht) by the early- to mid-19th century (earlier in the richer parts of town).

I met a fellow once who grew up in the Smithfield area on the north bank of the Liffey, and he told me that it was the last largely Irish-speaking neighborhood of Dublin (until modern times), with the language surviving there as a language of daily use into the early 20th century (the fellow I met couldn't speak fluently, but his grandfather had grown up speaking Irish at home there). It might have been because that area was where the horse market was held, and there was a continued flow of people from the countryside to keep the language alive through the 19th century. I saw the horse market in the 1970's there, and although the area is full of modern office blocks now, the market was still there the last time I went there in 2005 or 2006, although it seemed much diminished.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Very interesting, thanks. Interesting that it survived so central, had to be cos of the market, its still there though they are trying to ban it as some knackers started a shootout earlier in the year. Real shame. If it survived as a community language upto the famine that was surely in remote places like the dublin mountains?

You are so knowledgable about Irish language history Kevin maybe you should reply here.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2056438635

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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An-suimiúil. Some daft stuff too, of course, but mostly interesting.

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I've taken a lot of history and language classes, a Bhríd, but my historical "knowledge" is largely from amateur reading. I'm good at Trivial Pursuits and Jeopardy, though (lots of fairly useless trivia in my head).


That other site does have some pretty rude people on it (or at least sarcastic ones), but most of them seem nice and well-meaning.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.