Why does Ireland speak English?

Because the Irish pesantry realized that Irish would get them nowhere in the world so they embraced English or else starve.

If you look at the Gaelic revival at the start of the 20th century it was mainly big house Anglo Irish that were the drivers of it.

These had the time, money and intellect to emerse themselves in Irish, while the normal Irish person needed to put food on the table, and favouring English over Irish helped put that food on the table

Forced assimilation was less of a thing until the rise of Nationalism in the 19th century. There are also different kinds of nationalism in my opinion. The Russian type of Nationalism is about forced assimilation. This was practiced in the Baltic States, but they were not under Russian control consistently until the Great Northern War (1700-21).

The traditional ruling class in the Baltics were the German speaking nobles who were descended from the Teutonic Knights, who conquered it during the Northern Crusades. Lithuania had not been conquered because it had successfully defended itself from the Teutonic Knights, partly through conversion to Catholicism (which ended the Crusades against them but not other groups) an alliance with Poland, and also the ruler of Lithuania became King of Poland, and later Poland-Lithuania, when the two states unified. Estonia was under Danish and later Swedish control in the Middle Ages.

The Teutonic Knights continued attacking Lithuania and even Poland despite being Christian. They also attacked the Republic of Novgorod but were defeated at the Battle of the Ice.

In the Reformation, the Teutonic Knight state became the Duchy of Prussia and the Duchy of Courland (largely Latvia). The Western part of Prussia (which had been Baltic speaking before the Teutonic knights conquered it in the 13th century) was taken by Poland. Poland and Lithuania agreed a political-union in 1569. Poland-Lithuania, Sweden and the Tsardom of Moscovy (later renamed Russia) fought over the Baltics, such as in the Livonian War in modern day Latvia.

Estonia was controlled by Sweden until the great Northern War. Estonian is very similar linguistic to Finnish.

Sweden ruled Estonia in 1561-1721. Estonia was already Lutheran, so the Estonian language was not seen as a barrier to conversion in the way the Irish language was seen as a barrier to conversion to Protestantism during British rule. There were some efforts to assimilate the Finns but it was more at elite level. Access to higher education was limited unless you learned Swedish. Swedes were encouraged to migrate to Finland. About 7% of Finns still speak Swedish, and many vote for the Swedish Peoples Party. The Aland Islands are a Swedish speaking. Many of the Finnish elite were Swedish speaking during Swedish rule.

The Russian Empire only introduced Russification in Finland (taken from Sweden in 1809) under Nicholas II (1888-1917), which increased pro-independence sentiment there.

Regarding Estonian, the Russian Empire from the 1700s until the mid 1800s mostly left the German Baltic nobility in charge, with Estonians living under serfdom until emancipation in 1816-19 (50 years before Russia-proper). Russification started under Alexander III and Nicholas II in 1880s-1905. Russian was the official language of administration, the courts and secondary education. Estonian language was marginalised. Many Estonian-speaking teachers were replaced with Russian-speaking ones. Street signs and public life were "Russified".

The University of Tartu was Russified in 1893, renamed Yuryev University. Teaching in Estonian was discouraged or banned in upper-level schools. School textbooks were replaced with Russian ones, and Orthodox religious education was encouraged. Baltic German legal codes and administrative practices were gradually replaced by Russian law. Estonian language publications were censored or shut down. The Okrana (secret police) monitored Estonian activists and intellecturals.

However many Estonians resisted Russification underground, building cultural societies, singing choirs, newspapers and books in Estonian (when allowed).

Overall Tsarist Russification failed in Estonia. But Soviet Russification was deeper and more systematic.

• In 1941 and 1949, tens of thousands of Estonians (especially intellectuals, landowners, nationalists) were deported to Siberia or executed.

• To replace the Estonian population and meet labor needs, the USSR relocated hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking peoples to Estonia.

• By the 1980s, ethnic Estonians made up only ~61% of the population (compared to ~90% before WWII).

• Comparing with the Irish langauge:

• It experienced a gradual decline starting in the east of the country and spreading with the Tudor conquest of Ireland that concluded in 1603. This was followed by English and later British colonisation. These settlements were called Plantations, and the main ones were:

• - The Ulster Plantation (17th century). Mostly successful. Protestants, mostly English speaking (a minority may have spoken Scots-Gaelic) became the majority in Ulster around 1720. However there was a lot of Ulster Protestant emigration to the American colonies in the 18th century, and to Canada in the 19th century. By 1860, the population in Ulster was about 50:50 Catholic: Protestant.

• - Munster Plantation (late 16th century after the Desmond Rebellion). This was less successful, result in isolated English speaking Protestant towns surrounded by Catholic populations.

• - By 1800, the population of Ireland was about 50% Irish speaking, falling to about 40% by the time of the Irish Famine. But the overall population grew from 5 to 8 million. 1 million died in the Famine of 1846-51, which hit the Irish speaking West much harder (70% of the deaths). It was also hard hit by emigration until modern times, and Irish speakers were assimilated into English speaking countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

Tahnk you for your excellent post, ozymandius.

The early state wasn't that interested in it. It could have taken steps to transition to de jour Irish speaking, for example by abandoning anglicised place names and English medium education but they didnt and here we are. It would be very difficult to remove anglicised place names now or switch to entirely Irish medium education. Even now, place names are in italics on road signs and all lower case lettering, an indication that Irish is still very much subbordinate. It would take a monumental effort change now, keeping in mind a quarter of the population is now foreign.

In the case of mutton it would be lamb.

Because Ireland was ruled by England if you wanted a job you needed to speak English also many Irish emigrated to America or the UK children who went to school were not taught Irish until we got independence. .we Irish watched USA movies and tv english was default language for rte BBC and itv . Its an accident of history .Everyone can learn Irish and speak it but there's not much point if most of the people you know don't speak Irish fluently

It would be hard an Irish born person who cannot speak English

You’re right. Lamb is agneau. But what about pork? That was the most important meat. There is ham/pork and jambon/porc for the meat, and pig for the animal, which in French is cochon.

Why does Ireland speak English instead of Irish, shut this crap thread offffffff

Exactly what AH was like in the glory days of this place

Long may it continue

Never heard of that before. Off now to read more about it.

Scotland Wales America Australia are mostly English speaking countries also with their native language coming 2nd or mostly not existing -

And now the English hate the immigrant boat people when that's how the English came over to us-

They done it first-

The way Irish is taught could be a major factor. Most European countries are bi or multilingual.

Granted English is the international language and is almost essential to have. Still there must be something in the teaching that makes Irish so unpopular.

Because people want to have a good life and a good job. there's no practical reason to speak Irish, but if you want to speak it, work away.