ABSTRACT
There is no room for honest doubt that the Irish language is now dying. The only doubt is whether the generation of children now in a handful of schools in Conamara, Cloch Chionnaola and Gaoth Dobhair, and Corca Dhuibhne are the last generation of first-language native speakers or whether there will be one more. The reasons have been discussed at length and relate primarily to economic forces which have promoted the modernization of the Gaeltacht economy and the mobilization of its people, involving them intimately in much wider and constant social and economic relationships than are encompassed by the language.
