The Irish Language Attitudes Survey 2025: Ability, Use and Attitudes on the Island of Ireland - Executive report

Sep 29, 2026

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The Irish Language Attitudes Survey 2025 examines ability, use, and attitudes toward Irish across the island of Ireland, integrating evidence from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The report addresses language shift and revitalisation, relevant legislation and policy, and the role of Irish in education for each jurisdiction. Findings in 2025 cover self-reported ability, speaking frequency, overall attitudes, education-related views, policy attitudes, and perceptions of the future, supported by methodology and ethics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages148

Reading Time6 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Executive summary

Background

The survey

Results

Interpretation

Implication and recommendations

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Defining attitude

1.3 Language attitudes

1.4 Attitudes to the Irish language

1.5 Structure of the report

2. The Irish Language in the Republic of Ireland

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Language shift and revitalisation in ROI

2.3 Legislation and policy in ROI

2.4 Irish in education in ROI

2.5 Attitudes to Irish in ROI

2.6 Summary

3. The Irish Language in Northern Ireland

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Language shift and revitalisation in NI

3.3 Legislation and policy in NI

3.4 Irish in education in NI

3.5 Attitudes to Irish in NI

3.6 Summary

4. Comparative contexts: Wales and the Basque Autonomous Community

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Welsh in Wales

4.3 Basque in the Basque Autonomous Community

4.4 Summary

5. Methodology

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Sample design

5.3 Sample and response rate: Republic of Ireland

5.4 Sample and response rate: Northern Ireland

5.5 Corrective weighting

5.6 The questionnaire

5.7 Interviewer training

5.8 Pilot survey

5.9 Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing

5.10 Ethics, consent and data protection

5.11 Summary

6. Findings 2025

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Ability in Irish

6.3 Frequency of speaking Irish

6.4 Attitudes towards Irish

6.5 Summary

7. Discussion and conclusion

7.1 Intr

The Attitudes Survey 2025 The Irish Language Attitudes Survey 2025: Ability, Use and Attitudeson the Island of Ireland Colin J. Flynn Noel Ó Murchadha Trinity College Dublin The Irish Language Attitudes Survey 2025: Ability, Use and Attitudes on the Island of Ireland Colin J. Flynn, School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin Noel Ó Murchadha, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin May, 2026 [Available to download from](Available to download from www.tara.tcd.ie)[ ](Available to download from www.tara.tcd.ie)[www.tara.tcd.ie](Available to download from www.tara.tcd.ie)[ ](Available to download from www.tara.tcd.ie)DOI: [https://doi.org/10.25546/112527](https://doi.org/10.25546/112527) [How to cite this report:](How to cite this report:) Flynn, C. J., & Ó Murchadha, N. (2026) . The Irish language attitudes survey 2025: Ability, use and attitudeson the island of Ireland. Trinity College Dublin. [https://doi.org/10.25546/112527](https://doi.org/10.25546/112527) Copyright © Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland Published by: Trinity College Dublin Design: Pixelpod Funded by: Foras na Gaeilge The authors Colin J. Flynn was the first author of this report. He is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Science in Trinity College Dublin. His research is focused on psychological and social aspects of language learning, bilingualism and multilingualism. Noel Ó Murchadha was the Principal Investigator on this project. He is an Associate Professor in Language Education in the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. He is also the convenor of the Language Use and Multilingualism in Education Research Group (LUMIERE) . His research area is sociolinguistics. Acknowledgements This project was funded by Foras na Gaeilge and the authors wish to thank the Foras na Gaeilge staff for their input, in particular John Walsh who commissioned the research and who provided advice during the process. Ipsos B&A partnered with Trinity on the data collection phase of the project and we thank all of the Ipsos B&A staff involved for their professionalism and efficiency throughout, in particular Tarik Laher, Rachel Mulcahy and Luke Reaper. We thank Eugene McKendry who made valuable suggestions for the chapter on Northern Ireland and provided feedback on a draft of that chapter also. Mirain Rhys and Ane Ortega provided guidance and feedback on the sections on Welsh and Basque respectively and we thank them for this. We are grateful to Lauren Kavanagh for her significant input and advice regarding the statistical analysis of the data. We are grateful to Geraldine Fitzgerald and Monica Sanchidrian in the Library of Trinity College Dublin for their support with various aspects of the report. Dónall Ó Baoill and Pádraig Ó Duibhir provided important input as peer-reviewers, and we are grateful that we were able to draw on their expertise. Snasta Teoranta provided the Irish-language translation and we thank them for their work on that version of the report. Pixelpod designed the final report, and we thank Yvonne Rath for her work on this aspect of the work. This research would not have been possible without the participation of the 1,498 respondents and we gratefully acknowledge their time and input. The authors alone are responsible for the contents of the report and for the views expressed. Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of figures ix Executive summary x Background x The survey xi Results xi Interpretation xii Implication and recommendations xiii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 Defining attitude 2 1.3 Language attitudes 2 1.4 Attitudes to the Irish language 3 1.5 Structure of the report 4 2. The Irish Language in the Republic of Ireland 5 2.1 Introduction 6 2.2 Language shift and revitalisation in RO

FAQs

What does the survey assess about the Irish language in 2025?

It assesses ability, use, and attitudes, including self-reported ability to speak and read Irish, frequency of speaking, and attitudes toward Irish and related education and policy.

How does the report compare contexts across the island of Ireland?

It covers the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland separately, addressing language shift and revitalisation, legislation and policy, and Irish in education, then presenting findings and interpretation for each context.

What methodology and ethical practices does the report describe?

The methodology section explains sample design, response rates, corrective weighting, the questionnaire, interviewer training, pilot survey, computer-assisted interviewing, and ethics, consent, and data protection.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by Jake