More than one million people are actively learning Irish

More than one million people are actively learning Irish on Duolingo according to data from the language app.

A recent report (June 2021) listed Irish as the 16th most popular language to learn on the app, with 1.10 million users actively learning the language.

In December 2020, according to Duolingo Irish was the fastest growing language and the number one language to learn in Ireland.

Noah Higgs, an Irish language teacher who has contributed to the Irish section of Duolingo, told RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland that Irish has become so popular on the app thanks to the Irish diaspora around the world who want to learn about the tradition and the language of their ancestral homeland.

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An Claíomh Solais means "The Sword of Light", and is named after an Irish newspaper originally published around the beginning of the twentieth century. This project is opening a window to that time, not so long ago, and sharing the hopes, dreams and visions of the men and women who founded the modern Irish Republic.

The project will follow in their footsteps along the path laid down by Hyde, O'Conaire, MacNeill, Cusack and many others through sharing news, ideas, articles of Irish cultural interest and more, as well as helping to support Irish language and cultural initiatives. You can find out more about An Claíomh Solais by clicking on the buttons below, or join our team as we begin the great Gaelic restoration!

The Flame Still Burns: The Unbroken Spirit of Gaelic Ireland

There is a fire that has never gone out.

Though winds have blown across our hills and empires have cast their shadows upon our land, the spirit of Gaelic Ireland remains—a living ember in the hearts of her sons and daughters. It is not a myth or memory. It is blood. It is breath. It is the pulse beneath the skin of the nation, ancient and eternal.

Ireland was never just a place. It was, and is, an idea—a sacred trust handed down through generations of warriors, poets, craftsmen, mothers, fathers, and the noble dead. The Gael did not simply inhabit this land&m
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PH Pearse Letters Awaiting Execution 2

Kilmainham Prison
Dublin
3rd May 1916

My Dearest Mother,

I have been hoping up to now that it would be possible for me to see you again, but it does not seem possible. Goodbye, dear, dear mother. Through you I say goodbye to Wow-Wow, M.B., Willie, Miss Byrne, Miceal, Cousin Maggie and everyone at St Enda’s. I hope and believe that Willie and the St Enda's boys will be safe.

I have written two papers about financial affairs and one about my books, which I want you to get. With them are a few poems which I want added to the poems of mine i
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PH Pearse Letters Awaiting Execution I

Arbour Hill Barracks,
Dublin,
1st May 1916.

Dearest Mother,

You will, I know, have been longing to hear from me. I don't know how much you have heard since the last note I sent you from the G.P.O.

On Friday evening the post office was set on fire, and we had to abandon it. We dashed into Moore Street, and remained in the houses in Moore Street until Saturday afternoon. We then found that we were surrounded by troops, and that we had practically no food. We decided, in order to avoid further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of
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A marvellous description by Liam Bulfin

A marvellous description by Liam Bulfin in United Irishman ar 21 Aibreán 1906. Give us ten such men and English will be a second language in a generation!

“This is Pádraig Ó Dálaigh, General Secretary, a southerner. He can work 12 and 15 hours a day. He has a perfect constitution. With care he may live to eat square meals in the 21st century. He seems to have lived a long time already although his face is under the 30 limit. It is his brain that is old. His heart and all the rest of him are young ...

Under my personal observation he has
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Mionn

I n-ainm Dé,
Dar Críost a Aon-Ṁac,
Dar Muire a Ċaoṁ-Ṁáṫair,
Dar Pádraic Apstal Gaeḋeal,
Dar dílseaċt Ċuilm Ċille,
Dar clú ar gciniḋ,
Dar crú ar sinnsear,
Dar dúnṁarḃaḋ Aoḋa Ruaiḋ,
Dar bás truaiġṁéileaċ Aoḋa Uí Néill,
Dar oiḋeaḋ Eoġan Ruaiḋ,
Dar mian an tSáirséalaiġ le huċt a ḃáis,
Dar osna éagcoṁlainn an Ġearaltaiġ,
Dar créaċtaiḃ cróil
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Collapse of the Terror

British Rule's Last Stages

What the Elections Meant

We have seen how in ancient Ireland the people were themselves the guardians of their land, doing all for themselves according to their own laws and customs, as interpreted by the Brehons, which gave them security, prosperity, and national greatness, and how this was upset by the English determination to blot out Irish ways, when came poverty, demoralisation and a false respect for English standards and habits.

The English power to do this rested on military occupation and on econ
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