POLISH SPEAKERS IN IRELAND OUTNUMBER IRISH SPEAKERS

The Irish Constitution describes Irish as the “national language”, but English is the dominant language. In the 2006 census, 39% of the population regarded themselves as competent in Irish. Irish is spoken as a community language only in a small number of rural areas in mostly in the west and south of the country.

As a result of immigration, Polish is the most widely spoken language in Ireland after English with Irish as the third most spoken.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland

ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, GREAT BRITAIN EXPLAINED

THE BRITISH ISLES:

The British Isles consists of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over 6,000 smaller isles (including: the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey and Isle of Man).

GREAT BRITAIN:

Great Britain is the larger of the two main islands in the British Isles accounting for 73% of the land area and 90% of the population. It is divided into three countries all of who are part of the United Kingdom.

·         ENGLAND: The largest country in Great Britain accounting for 57% of the area and 86% of the population.

·         SCOTLAND: The second largest country in Great Britain accounting for 34% of the area and 9% of the population.

·         WALES: The smallest country in Great Britain accounting for 9% of the area and 5% of the population.

IRELAND:

Ireland is the smaller of the two large islands in the archipelago, accounting for 27% of the land area, but just under 10% of the total population. It is divided between the fully independent sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom.

·         REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Accounts for 84% of the area of Ireland and 72% of the population.

·         NORTHERN IRELAND: Accounts for 17% of the area and 28% of the population.

UNITED KINGDOM:

The United Kingdom is a fully independent sovereign state made up of the 3 countries on Great Britain plus Northern Ireland.

FUN FACT: Everyone from England, Scotland and Wales is also British, but not people from Northern Ireland, who are Irish (despite also being U.K. citizens). People from the Republic of Ireland are just Irish. And, none of these groups, except for people from England, should be referred to as English.