Julie Jay: It has never been easier to parent as Gaeilge than it is now

Speaking Irish at home to your kids comes with many advantages but one major drawback too

Julie Jay: "For our eldest, the understanding of what I am saying to him in Irish is definitely there, and yet he rarely, if ever, answers back in full sentences, preferring to punctuate his English syntax with nouns as Gaeilge, like ‘gáirdín,’ ‘mála’ and the most important one of all — ‘seacláid’."

A couple of years ago, my husband headed off to Donegal for the week to film the first season of Réaltaí na Gaeltachta, a show where some reasonably well-known Irish faces went to learn Irish for the week.

As I drove him to the airport for his week’s holiday — sorry, work — he asked me for a few basic phrases to start him off: How to say his age, his name, and, finally, where he was from.