They don’t teach it in schools anymore,when i was going to school 44 yrs ago the christian brothers taught me to speak it.
When i left school i never used it and now have largely forgotten it..
I believe there is one little community on the West coast that still speaks it..
When we were touring there in 2001, our guides told us it was taught in all the schools. Whether I misunderstood, or not, I was on a bus on 9-11-01 between Blarney and Waterford when, suddenly our bus driver and our guide (who had been continuously joking and singing with us) suddenly got very quiet and addressed each other in Gaelic. My husband and I were sitting right behind them and we couldn’t understand a word they said. The guide turned away from the driver, and stepped one row back to us and addressed my husband in hushed tones.
He told us about what had happened earlier that day in NYC. Then he asked my husband, “What do you think I should do?” My husband replied, “Tell them, and then turn on the radio and turn up the volume so we all can hear!”
So, the guide made his way to the back of the bus, criss-crossing the aisle and notifying passengers in groups of 5 or 6. And we listened to Irish radio when the 2nd plane went into the tower, when they announced that another plane had flown into the Pentagon, when yet another crashed into the field in PA. We cheered President Bush’s words of encouragement and steely resolve to the nation.
That moment changed the rest of the trip and changed all of our lives forever. And it all started with a whispered conversation in a foreign country, in a language none of us understood - Gaelic.