Irish language in Northern Ireland (original) (raw)

The Irish language (Irish: Gaeilge) is an official language in Northern Ireland. The Irish language is the second most spoken language in Northern Ireland. The dialect spoken there is known as Ulster Irish (Gaeilge Uladh). Protection for the Irish language in Northern Ireland stems largely from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. According to the 2011 UK Census, in Northern Ireland 184,898 (10.65%) claim to have some knowledge of Irish, of whom 104,943 (6.05%) can speak the language. Some 4,130 people (0.2%) use Irish as their main home language.