Irish language in the midlands

Crann na Beatha

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dubhthach

you are probably looking at 18th century for Laois and Offaly, Irish persisted longer in Meath than it did in Westmeath. Here's map based on Garrett Fitzgerald's work using 1901/1911 census:



you have to remember there were "Jacobean" plantations during the early 17th century in western Offaly/Loais/Westmeath, these tied in with earlier Plantations of Eastern Offaly/Laois during Tudor period.

It's quite probable that the last native speakers in these counties were probably during the 18th century (though there might have been some spill over into 19th century)

Distrubition map show late 18th century (white covers 0-19%)

dubhthach

Just had a look in Index for
"An Irish-Speaking Island
State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770–1870"

http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5334.htm

I see following:

Page 166-167

"The earliest statutory provision for interpreting at poll booths, however, appears to have been the 57 Geo. III c. 131 (1817), which required returning officers presiding at elections to appoint an interpreter for each polling station to administer oaths in Irish, on recipt of a written requet from any of the candidates. This act, for example, is listed as the authority for paying an interpreter by the undersheriff of Queen's County, who employed one at the general election of 1818 (99)."

Note 99. for this page says:

99. (Ireland) Sheriffs Charge and Expenses at Elections, 1818 and 1820. Returns to an Address of the House of Commons, of 13th June 1820; for an Account of All sums of Money Paid to Sheriffs or Undersheriffs, at the General Election in 1818, and at the LAst General Election, (1820) for Writs and PRecepts, for Either Counties, Cities, or Bouroughs in Ireland .... p. 11 H.C. 1820 (291), ix

Returns nevertheless reveal considerable expenses for interpreting, and in seemingly unlikely places. An interpreter was employed in the Queen's County election in 1818, as has already been noted, and several in the county election for Tipperary at a cost of £55 14s. 9d. This sum was identical to the expenses paid for the fourteen interpreters employed in Limerick for seven day's worth of translation in 1818.

On Page 57 there's this little bit (refering to Louth in 1800), the note number is more telling

"Nearby, in the parish of Clonmore, Co. Louth, "most of the inhabitants speak the English language, but they prefer the Irish among themselves", similar to findings in Queen's County and in County Cork. (152)

Note 152:

152. Mason, Statistical Account, 1:198; Charles Coots, General View of the Agriculture and Manufactures of the Queen's County, with Observations on the Means of their Improvement, Drawn Up in the Year 1801, for the Consideration, and under the Direction of the Dublin Society (Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, 1801), 187-88; Townsend, Statical Survey, 418-19

Crann na Beatha

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dubhthach

With regards to Westmeath, here are some snippets from same book:

Page 59:

Rare examples describing the actual phenomenon of switching between Irish and English also give greater support to the notion of the interlocutor as a determinant of language used, not domain. A "gentleman residing in the County of Westmeath" report to the Irish Society in 1823: "English is the langauge that we hear generally spoken; but I have often observed that when any of their superiors have been present, conversation changed to Irish; and I know that in their private meetings, Irish is the language used in general." (160)

Note 160:

160. Irish Society, "Quarterly Extract, No. 10", in Quearterly Extracts (Dublin: M. Goodwin, 1823), 81

Page 156 (talking about cost of grand jury translators in 1807)

Among those making presentments for costs were predominantly English-speaking counties like Fermanagh, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow, whose courts nonetheless found it necessary to supply an individual to translate despite lower percentages of resident Irish speakers. (47)

Note 47

47. (Ireland) Accounts, Presented to the House of Commons, of the Presentments Passed by the Grand Juries of Ireland, at the Spring and Summer Assizes, in the Year 1807, pp. 3-447, H.C. 1808 (205), xiii. Counties reporting employment of interpreters in 1807 were Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Fermanagh, Kilkenny, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow.

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All above is transcribed by myself there while reading the relevant passages in book, so excuse any spelling mistakes from my transliteration.