Subscribe
When Ireland formally joined the European Economic Community in 1973, the Irish language (Gaeilge) was applied only to translations of existing Treaties as well as any forthcoming Treaties that would later emerge. At the time, Ireland did not request full recognition of Irish as an official or working language within the Community’s institutions, a reflection of both the political priorities of the day and the marginal status of Irish in state administration.
It would be another three decades before Ireland, under a Fianna Fáil-led Government headed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, would officially request that Gaeilge be recognised as an official and working language of the institutions of the European Union (EU). This shift was not sudden, but emerged from a growing cultural revival movement during the late 1990s and early 2000s, which sought to reframe the Irish language not as a symbol of rural nostalgia but as a legitimate expression of modern Irish identity.
This policy shift followed intensive lobbying from prominent Irish language organisations such as Conradh na Gaeilge, whose advocacy campaigns grew increasingly sophisticated and international in scope. The movement gained decisive momentum with the mobilisation of major public rallies in 2004, attended by tens of thousands of participants under the banner of STÁDAS, a coalition composed of Irish-language organisations, educators, students, and legal professionals. Their core demand was clear: full linguistic equality for Irish within the EU’s legal and political machinery.
These efforts eventually culminated in the formal Government request in 2005 for recognition of Irish as an official and working language. The request was framed not just as a symbolic gesture, but as a necessary step in reinforcing Ireland’s linguistic and cultural sovereignty within an expanding EU.
The European Council agreed to grant that status through the implementation, from 1 January 2007, of Regulation (EC) No 920/2005. This was a landmark moment for Irish language advocates. However, the Council’s Regulation also provided for a period of transition, noting that while it was appropriate to answer positively to the Irish Government’s request, for practical reasons, the institutions of the European Union were not to be immediately bound by the obligation to draft and translate all acts—including judgments of the Court of Justice—into the Irish language.
This so-called derogation was to apply for a period of five years, up to 2012, during which a formal review was scheduled for 2010. It was intended as a pragmatic compromise, balancing the Irish Government’s ambitions with the operational realities of the EU’s multilingual bureaucracy.
In response, the Irish Government committed to creating the conditions in which a sufficient number of qualified graduates could be trained to meet the EU’s recruitment needs. This was to be a cornerstone of the state’s broader 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010–2030, which sought to integrate language planning into core areas of national policy.
To meet these goals, the state expanded funding for linguistic education and interpreter training, particularly through institutions such as the National University of Ireland. Specialised postgraduate programs were supported to produce a new generation of legal and technical translators with proficiency in both Irish and the institutional language of the EU. By 2008, this investment had yielded around 15 translators for EU institutions, a modest start but far short of what was needed.
Despite these efforts, it soon became clear that Ireland was falling behind in recruiting enough Irish-speaking interpreters, remaining well below the estimated 100+ professionals required to sustain full linguistic parity. The gap was especially stark when compared with better-established EU languages with larger speaker bases and deeper institutional traditions.
As a result, in 2011, the European Commission—after assessing the progress made—recommended an extension of the derogation to 31 December 2015. Though disappointing for campaigners, the extension allowed for further scaling up of training and recruitment initiatives.
By 2015, a measure of progress had been achieved. Approximately 60 Irish translators and interpreters were now available to work on European Parliament debates and documentation. Encouraged by this, the Irish Government formally requested that the EU Council consider reducing the scope of the derogation, with a view to phasing it out entirely by 1 January 2022.
Although this was an incremental approach, it was warmly welcomed by Irish-language campaigners. Conradh na Gaeilge’s then-president Cóilín Ó Cearbhaill praised the move, noting that it reflected his organisation’s longstanding call for a step-by-step plan to end the derogation and that it underscored Ireland’s renewed commitment to securing Irish as a full working language at the European level.
Unfortunately, by the time the December 2015 deadline arrived, the EU Council concluded that the institutions were still not in a position to end the derogation. This meant that the transitional arrangements were to be extended once again, this time to 1 January 2022. Still, the tone of the discussions had shifted—there was now a clearer expectation that the derogation would eventually end.
There were some hopeful signs. In 2016, the Irish Government announced that more than 700 people would be trained to translate non-official EU documents into Irish before 2022. It was reported in Ireland’s media at the time that this effort would see thousands of pages translated each year, while creating around 180 full-time jobs with salaries often exceeding €100,000 per annum.
This latter point was to become a focal point for criticism. The entire process was framed by some as an exercise in linguistic elitism. Media commentary in 2022 revisited the charge that while Irish linguists working for EU institutions were earning salaries of €50,000–€70,000 or more—funded at least in part by Irish taxpayers—communities in Gaeltacht areas, where Irish is still spoken as a native language, continued to suffer from chronic underinvestment and economic marginalisation. Median incomes in some of these regions remained below €30,000.
Such criticisms are commonly voiced by Irish speakers and writers outside the EU institutions, many of whom question whether the EU-level focus on status and prestige has come at the expense of practical support for Irish as a living, community language.
Indeed, Ireland is notable for the persistence of a cultural critique that views Irish speakers not as a marginalised minority but as a self-regarding elite, enjoying state patronage while claiming victimhood. As one scathing Irish Times article put it in 2018, the “Irish language lobby” had become “too powerful to ignore, yet too incoherent to reform.”
Additional criticisms emerged from political figures and Irish-language advocates who highlighted concerns around value for money. It was estimated that achieving full working language status had cost the Irish state over €20 million since the process began in 2005. Some critics argued that this funding would have been better spent supporting Gaelscoileanna (Irish-medium primary schools), or improving access to Irish-language services in healthcare and social protection.
Opponents of that argument maintained that both objectives could and should be pursued in parallel: strengthening the use of Irish at EU level, while also investing in the survival and expansion of Irish in daily life. For them, the EU campaign was not a distraction, but a source of national pride that could raise the profile of the language internationally and inspire renewed interest at home.
What is indisputable is that the strategy of integrating Irish into the workings of the EU was never withdrawn, despite setbacks and criticism. A 2022 Report from the Commission to the EU Council confirmed that the EU institutions had steadily increased the volume of Irish-language content and were successfully managing the gradual reduction of the derogation.
The same report highlighted that since 2016, the volume of EU documents translated into Irish had tripled. The most substantial increase took place in the 2021 phase, which, although limited to the Commission, resulted in a 70% increase in the translation of legislation into Irish. This marked a major administrative and symbolic milestone.
Efforts such as these finally ensured the long-desired goal of having Irish formally recognised as a full working language of the EU on 1 January 2022. The achievement capped nearly two decades of sustained effort and demonstrated the capacity of a small-language community to shape EU language policy through persistence and political strategy.
When we consider that the EU has 23 other official languages and over 60 regional or minority languages, the elevation of Irish to working-language status remains a remarkable accomplishment. It is a testament not only to the resilience of Irish-language campaigners but also to the strategic use of national and European institutions to promote cultural heritage.
While criticisms linger about the cost, purpose, and class politics of the initiative, there is also broad recognition that the protection and promotion of Irish as a spoken and living language is a shared national goal—regardless of where one stands on the merits of this particular policy path.