As a historian of languages and someone who learned Irish as an adult,
Caoimh¡n De Barra offers both academic and personal insights into
Ireland's complex relationship with its national language. This book
explains why most people don't learn Irish at school, where the deep
hatred some have for the language comes from, and how people who want to
learn Irish can do so successfully. Drawing upon the history of other
minority languages around the world, De Barra demonstrates why current
efforts to promote Irish are doomed to fail, and proposes a radical
solution for how to revive An Ghaeilge so it can again become the first
language of the Irish people.