A chairde,
Is there any data (parish, census, etc.) that documents the usage of Irish as a FIRST language during the 18th and 19th centuries? The reason I ask is I'm trying to guesstimate at what point in time English became the first language for the areas where my family is from. My mom is from Galway (Clifden area), and my father is from Longford (near Granard).

I would guess that the Galway side would have made the switch to Béarla more recently, but from what my relatives tell me, it was still before 1900.

Based on the limited research I've done, it seems as if both sets of relatives would have most likely switched in the 19th century (with the possibility that Longford switched in the 18th), but I'd love to be able to pinpoint it based on actual data.

GRMMA for your help!
-GA

Garret Fitzgerald did some analysis of Irish speaking in pre-famine Ireland based on census reports:

http://www.ria.ie/Publications/Journals/PRIA-Section-C/Buy-online/PRIA-Section-C -5--GARRET-FITZGERALD--Irish-speakin.aspx

I am sure I read a free copy online but I can't seem to source a link now. My recollection is that it goes to a fair level of detail with linguistic maps etc.

Go raibh maith agat, an chilleasrach!

I found a link that was supposed to contain a PDF of that book, but it looks like they've removed the document.

Here's a map, though, from 1871 which is exactly what I'm looking for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Irishin1871.jpg

If there are add'l maps like this which track 18th and 19th century Irish language patterns, that would be great.

Much appreciated.
-GA

As An_chilleasrach says, FitzGerald's study is worth a look.

quote:

I would guess that the Galway side would have made the switch to Béarla more recently, but from what my relatives tell me, it was still before 1900.

Clifden and the surrounding area was in the Barony of Ballynahinch. According to the 1851 census, 85.4% of residents in the Barony were Irish speakers. Almost 40% of the Irish speakers were monoglots (Irish-only). In the census of 1891, 74% of the population were recorded as Irish speaking, though the number of monoglots had been reduced significantly.

I doubt you'll be able to pinpoint it exactly, but you'd want to find out the occupation of the head of the household, their religious background etc, if you don't already know. That could help.

As for Longford, the Barony with the highest percentage of Irish speakers in 1851 was Granard at 3%.

quote:

I am sure I read a free copy online but I can't seem to source a link now. My recollection is that it goes to a fair level of detail with linguistic maps etc.

It was a free download from the RIA about 5 years ago. It's not there after a recent site redesign -- as they say on that site:
"Sorry - we cannot find that page. You may have noticed that we have changed the look of our website. New pages have been added, old ones have been removed. Unfortunately, the page you are looking for cannot be found."
You can still get a copy if you visit the earlier incarnation of the RIA site via the "Wayback Machine" at archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050424104921/http://www.ria.ie/publications/journal s/procci/2003/PC03/PDF/103C05.pdf

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Fantastic! Go raibh maith agaibh.