and civil rights groups, has promised to include it in the 1991 census. In the Partitioned area it is recorded that an annual average of 2,000 children pass GCE (now GCSE) in “O” and “A” levels.

Apart from early inscriptions, Irish literary survivals begin in the sixth century a.d. Calvert Watkins, Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University, has stated: “Irish has the oldest vernacular literature of Europe.” He argues that both Greek and Latin were used as a lingua franca among diverse peoples, while Irish was a lingua materna. However, Irish is certainly, with the exception of Greek and Latin, possessed of a literature that is far older than any other European people.

In spite of some attempts at destruction by conquerors, a wealth of manuscript books survive. In fact, Irish contains the world’s most extensive medical manuscript literature written in any one language prior to 1800. Historical works, poetry, mythological sagas, scientific discourses, musical manuscripts, as well as the complete codification of the native Irish law system (Brehon Laws) have survived.

The first printed works in Irish occur in the sixteenth century. Ironically it was Elizabeth I of England who is credited with having the first fount of “Gaelic” type struck in order that she might have a phrase-book in Irish. A Protestant Catechism in Irish was printed in 1571. The New Testament became available in 1603, although the Old Testament (translated during the 1640s) was not printed until 1681.

During this period, with the attempts to eradicate the Irish language on the part of the English administration, the Irish in exile established centres for the publication of Irish books in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, and especially Louvain. A number of books were published abroad throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to be smuggled into Ireland. The first Irish dictionary (Foclóir no Sanasan Nua) was printed in Louvain in 1643.

A thriving literature continued in spite of the Penal Laws designed to destroy the language. The worst blow to the language was the artificial famine of 1844–1848. Prior to the famine it was estimated that the major part of the Irish population were bilingual, while, according to Dr. Daniel Dewar at the time, two million did not understand English. The first census following the famine, which savagely depleted the Irish-speaking population, showed