or Gaelic language
Latin alphabet introduced with Christianity in the 5th century.
Irish is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Irish (600–с 950), Middle Irish (с 950–1200), and Modern Irish (from с 1200). Ogham writing predates Old Irish. Old and Middle Irish are the vehicles of a rich literature of prose tales and verse. Classical Modern Irish was the exclusive literary medium in Ireland and Scottish Gaeldom into modern times (see {{link=Scottish Gaelic language">Scottish Gaelic language ). Literacy in Irish declined under English rule; by 1800 it was all but an unwritten language. The deaths and emigration resulting from the Irish Potato Famine and a massive shift to English afterward drastically reduced the number of Irish-speakers. Irish was revived as a literary language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and with Irish independence (1921) it was made official. Though it is a true community language only for a small number of people on Ireland's western coast in what are called Gaeltachts, hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens and people of Irish descent have some competence in Irish.