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BACKGROUND: Irish people want the language to survive Revival strategies at national level have focused primarily on educational system, where the teaching of Irish is required as part of the school curriculum. While such a strategy has meant that the vast majority of the population has acquired some knowledge of the language, the lack of established domains in which Irish is used has led to a failure to revive it as a community language at this level. However, in recent year, an upsurge of support for and favorable attitudes towards the Irish language are evident among the public. Opinion research carried out by the Linguistics Institute of Ireland in 1993 showed a continuing high level of support for Irish. 60% agreed that "Ireland would not really be Ireland without Irish-speaking people" 66% agreed that "No real Irish person can be against the revival of Irish" 91% wanted Irish either taught as a subject or used as a medium of instruction in schools. (Only 5% opposed this). One of the challenges facing the language planners in Ireland is to translate such support into an increased usage or Irish at community level. How Many Speak Irish? When talking about Irish-speakers it is important to distinguish betw