Cornish has died out as a native language but is being revived: and of course Irish Gaelic, or Erse, is still spoken, more widely in the west of the island than the east.

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Manx Gaelic is one of just six Celtic languages, the others are Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and Cornish.

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At a state banquet, "suddenly she started speaking in Irish, in Gaelic, " Cameron recalled.

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Academics are divided about the status of language which is based on English with influences from Irish, Scots Gaelic and Lowland Scots.

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At primary level, last year a new sports programme was launched for primary schools where coaches from the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Football Association go into schools to work with children aged four to eight.

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"It's great that we can celebrate being Irish because we have a very strong community in Birmingham with world class Irish dancers, musicians and a strong Gaelic football culture, and all of these things are greatly underrated, " she added.

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He joined the Gaelic League, started to use the name Sean and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

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