I am now writing a BA paper about the Irish language in the United States and Canada and I have a few questions that I am still bothering with. If there is anyone who could help me with them, I would greatly appreciate it :)

1. Are there any Irish-speakers/Irish-learners in the Untied States or Canada who speak Irish at home with their family, friends etc?

2. Is there any American/Canadian television programme which deals with the Irish language at all? I've heard about a radio programme - Cead Mile Failte, and a few columns in diverse newspapers, but never about any television programme.

3. Are there any regular Irish Masses (Irish monolingual or English/Irish bilingual) in the United States or Canada? Once again, I've heard about a monthly mass in New York, but don't know about the specific location.

Any help would be much much appreciated :)
greetings from Poland:)

1. Yes. Several I know of are registered with a Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tuismitheoiri/

2. See also http://www.angaelmagazine.com/ Don't know about TV: .

3. Don't know, sorry

For what it's worth:

1. Yes.

2. I have never seen any Irish television here. There may be an occasional documentary here and there on Irish culture in the US, but the language actually is usually left out of the stuff I've seen. A huge problem with a lot of the Irish culture activities out here in my view.

3. Regular, I would say not. I mostly hear about these when they are associated with an event, like an Irish fair or something like that.

If my memory is correct I believe the US census asks about "home language". I recall reading somewhere that there was 20k people in the US who had Irish down as a "home language" most of them were in and around Boston/North East. Not too surprising as they often say there are more Conamara people in Boston then in Conamara itself

Aonghus & Seánw
grmma :)
few more things, if you could tell me,
namely
1. Would you say there a lot of them, or only a few in enclosed communities, basically are we talking about tens, hundreds or just one family or two per city/town?
2. Do they live rather in rural areas than in urban ones?
2. Are these people usually natives of Ireland or people of Irish ancestry?
3. Is it the only language that they use at home or is it used for certain purposes only/in certain circumstances only e.g. family events, Irish-related events?

Basically, any details would be much appreciated since I would like to incorporate information given by you in my paper :) if it's possible.

Second set:

1. No, not lots, but there are concentrations. I am aware of concentrations in metropolitan San Francisco, New York, and Boston. In these places you can find classes with native speakers and many more public events with the Irish language available in some way. I would say multiple families in these areas and perhaps a few hundred individuals potentially.

2a. I would say mostly urban/suburban. I would think rural would be very rare these days.

2b. I would say the vast majority are natives of Ireland, or first generation Americans, and of Irish ancestry.

3. I have no direct evidence, but I would assume it is either people who are natives from Ireland or people who are learners that want to speak Irish in their family. I guess it depends if their family speaks Irish. It is very common for people to speak a different language at home than in public. I also think there is flux in the young speakers because some may be here temporarily, like this one: http://santacruznagreine.wordpress.com/



See also:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/other/detailed-lang-tables.xls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Irish_Gaelic_USC2000_PHS.svg

http://youtu.be/hJpZxGvfO6w

and

http://www.usefoundation.org/userdata/file/Research/Languages/irish_gaelic.pdf

Probably from the 2000 census.

(Message edited by seánw on May 12, 2011)

(Message edited by seánw on May 12, 2011)

I have nothing to add to Seán's answers, not being in the US.

Neighbours of mine lived in South Bostun most of their lives, spoke Irish mostly and brought up a family with Irish there.

>3. Are there any regular Irish Masses (Irish monolingual or English/Irish bilingual) in the United States or Canada?

There is a monthly Mass in Irish during the school year in Jersey City. It has been going on for more than 10+ years now. For the last few years there has been about 12-20 people attending. Next years schedule will be posted some time during the summer and will be available at:
http://home.comcast.net/~ihde/feilire.htm