© Donegal Democrat
A Fine Gael Glenties electoral area councillor was delighted to learn the Donegal Gaeltacht area is the most vibrant in the State and the Irish language is being used on a more regular basis outside this area.
Councillor Padraig Ó’Dochartaigh was commenting on recent statistics that were made available to him at a recent sitting of Glenties electoral meeting. The survey outlined how the vibrant gaeltacht area in Donegal enjoyed being the region where Irish is spoken more frequently than any other area within the State. Cllr. Ó Dochartaigh said: ‘There is a lot of Irish being spoken in Letterkenny and other regions of the county. A lot of different households speak Irish. There are many Irish speakers living in the Letterkenny area. There is a huge demand for the Gaelscoileanna out there.’ In County Donegal in 2006 there was 50,415 households of which 25,620 households indicated that they were Irish households with Irish speakers. In addition there was 8,711 total private households in the Gaeltacht area of which over 80 per cent indicated that they were Irish speakers. County Donegal’s figure was above the average figure for the Gaeltacht area in the State at 80.1 per cent.