Nín aon mhíniughadh air, is fusa ceisteanna a chuir chum na bhfreagraighe is toil leat is athá bhuait a dh' fhághailt agus ansan figiúirighe a thaispeáint i slighe neamh-mhacánta. Nínid siad acht ag cur iad fhéinig amughadh, noch ní chreideann aoinne go bhfuil tuisgint mhaith acu ar chúrsaidhe na teangan iad. Sin smaoineamh maith an cheist a chur tré mheadhan na Gaodhaluinne, chífimid ansan cia chomh fluirseach is 'tháid. Gan amhras ansan bristear an cheist ina cúig chuid agus caithfir ceisteanna a dh'fhreagairt le tic nó re/ ri líne tiubh a chur ins an(na) bosca(íbh) is ceart duit:

dóibh súd a labhrann an teangadh go laethmhail ar sgoil,

iad súd a labhrann an teangadh go laethmhail lasmuich do'n sgoil

Dóibh súd a labhrann go sechtmhaineamhail í

Is beag a labhraíd í

Ná labhrann in ao' chor í

Ní thugtar eolas dúinn ar chaitheann a labhraítear í. Ní'l staitisticidhe aca ar san! n' fheadar dé chúis ,ach gan amhras, Is léir í an chúis

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, actually it doesn't: http://www.census.ie/_uploads/images/qu ... ure_25.png, they are the actual questions, I believe. What it does do is provide information regarding speakers in Gaeltacht geographical regions, which itself is inaccurate because not all Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht are native speakers either. They have three different tables 33 (table 7a), 34 (table 7b) and 35(table 7c) http://www.cso.ie/en/media/duplicatecso ... s_1-17.pdf.

Today Connacht's (native) speakers outweigh all other Gaeltachtaí with Munster having the smallest minority. But during and before the time of the Caighdeán; Munster Irish was in a much stronger position. 40 years ago the town where I live "Youghal" was surrounded by Gaeltachtaí (Cnoc an Dúin, Baile Mhac Óda, Cnoc an Óir etc...) these little Gaeltachtaí connected all the way along and up the Waterford coast, taking in the country side of Aird Mhór and then onto An Seanaphobal agus An Rinn. The Déise Irish also takes in parts of Tipperary etc... where there were also pockets of speakers until recently. From Baile Mhac Óda Irish stretched up along the coast towards Cork with pockets here and there and a large contingent around Skibereen.

30 years before that again most of the encompassing Gaeltachtaí were full of monolingual Irish speakers and there are accounts of the difficulties it took for them to learn English when thy got married to the people of the town and subsequently moved to the town. The framework of this delicate connectivity was severed bit by bit until the core Gaeltacht regions were split off and isolated from each other. I am aware that the Gaeltacht boundaries were redrawn not just for Munster but for all provinces but if you look at a map of the designated Gaeltachtaí you'll see that the Connacht Gaeltachtaí and the Ulster Gaeltacht is almost in one big cluster, whereas, the Munster Gaeltachtaí are divided by a vast geographical area and they are relativity small in size in comparison and they are shrinking even more. If the trend continues the future does not look bright for Munster Irish. In a hundred years Munster Irish has gone from one of the strongest, if not the strongest, to the weakest because they became completely isolated not from the World but from each other which allowed them to be eventually engulfed with English.

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