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Language barriers are not a concern for Americans traveling to Ireland, as English is the primary language. Only 30% of Irish citizens feel confident in speaking Irish due to historical events such as the Great Famine. Irish surnames often begin with ‘Mac’ or ‘O’, and Bram Stoker based Dracula on his friend Henry Irving. John Tyndall discovered the “greenhouse effect”.
Americans traveling to Ireland really don’t have to worry about the language barriers they often encounter in other European countries. While school-age students in Ireland have to study their mother tongue for more than a decade, they don’t necessarily leave school knowing how to speak Irish, or Gaelic, as it is commonly called. In fact, only around 30% of Irish citizens report feeling confident in their language skills. This figure is even lower in Northern Ireland, where only 8% say they are fluent in Irish. English is the primary language, largely due to the island’s long and difficult history as part of the British Empire. The Great Famine of the mid-19th century is also the cause of the loss of native Irish speakers. During that time, rural areas of Ireland (which were historically strongholds of the Irish language) lost half their population to emigration and famine.
Behind the scenes in Ireland:
Many Irish surnames begin with ‘Mac’ (e.g. MacDonald) or ‘O’ (e.g. O’Casey); the former means “son of”, while the latter means “descendant of” or “grandson of”.
Irish author Bram Stoker is thought to have based his Dracula character on his friend, the stage actor Henry Irving. The novel was originally titled The Dead Un-Dead.
Irish physicist John Tyndall was the first to demonstrate that the earth’s atmosphere has a so-called “greenhouse effect”.
