The distribution of the Irish language in 1871

The distribution of the Irish language in 1871 - From E.G. Ravenstein, “On the Celtic Languages of the British Isles: A Statistical Survey”, in Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. 42, no. 3, (September, 1879)

793 x 967

‘Bearing in mind most of the red areas are very sparsely populated (and were at the time of the map, too) does anybody have an estimate as to what percentage of the total population would fall into the various red and pink categories?

They weren’t as sparsely populated back then though. Yes it’s post famine, but the depopulation of the West took place over 150 years’

Ethnographic Map of Great Britain and Ireland (1850)

Ethnographic Map of Great Britain and Ireland, according to Dr. Gustaf Kombst - by A.K. Johnston (1850)

7548 x 8970

‘This is fantastic! Very good work here.

It should be noted however that this is primarily a cultural influence map, as the amount of DNA contributed by Scandinavians (and likely even Angles and Saxons) was pretty minor compared to the people that lived here previously. The days where conquerers would replace populations was long over at this point, they just took over the positions of power and influence at the top of society.

So are you saying that a DNA based map would look significantly different?

I’ve done a little research into this (for genealogy purposes), and believe that the majority of the DNA in Britain is still pre-Celtic and Celtic. Later waves of conquerers (northwest Germanic Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians), Scandinavians (mainly Danish with some Norwegian), and Norman (mostly French) only contributed a minority part of the genetics to the current population. The new groups that came in usually just took over the upper echelons of power and privilege in society, so their cultures kind of became more of an influence (or dominant), but the DNA they contributed overall wasn’t very large.

If I had to estimate, it would be around: 40% Pre-Celtic 40% Celtic 15% Anglo-Saxon 1% Viking 1% Norman

3% other’

How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties

How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties

2000 × 2100

‘Save this language … I’m trying, Duolingo has Irish I was doing quite well. But it’s tough due to the way the language is structured it’s not intuitive to a native English speaker. Like anything it takes practice and if you stop you lose your momentum … Learning the language online does not save any language. It’s a nice thing to tell yourself, but in reality if one would want to help, one would have to take a lot of money anc create economic and cultural resource in Ireland - that basically means create job opportunities etc. And that’s nearly impossible for individuals to casually support’