Can Americans Speak Irish?

The Irish language is often a controversial topic. According to the 2016 Census, only 40% of Irish people identified as being able to speak the language, and Irish people hailing from Irish-first (Gaeltacht) areas had dropped by over 2,500 (since 2011 Census) to 96,090, of which only 20,596 reported speaking Irish daily.

I create video content online relating to the Irish language, from teaching people How To Curse In Irish to interviewing people on the street to see how many of them can speak Irish. One of my biggest audience demographics for this kind of content are viewers from the USA, many of whom express a love for the language and some of whom express surprise that Ireland has its own language as they “thought (we) spoke English?”

This mix of love of the language together with ignorance of its existence led to me to wonder… are there any Americans out there who can actually speak Irish?

To find this out, I put out a call on Twitter looking for Americans who were learning Irish. I spoke to a number of people from North America (both USA and Canada) with Irish heritage, who ranged from beginner learners to experienced Irish teachers teaching other Americans.