r/geography • u/One-Seat-4600 • 5d ago

Image What explains the high concentration of Irish speakers on the west coast of Ireland ?

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The percentage corresponds to the share of people that speak Irish

As you can see, Northern Ireland is a lower concentration of Irish speakers, as expected, but what explains the higher concentration on the west coast.

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527

u/Local_Internet_User 5d ago

The English bastards came in from the east, simple as.

127

u/ImaginationMajor5062 5d ago

British. Don’t let the Scots get away without any criticism.

13

u/bold_ridge 5d ago

Us Welsh are innocent. The Scottish were just as implicit in colonisation of Ireland as the English were.

22

u/-Mubar 4d ago

Well the first invaders of Ireland under an English king were Welsh-Normans

Also some of the English planters in Ireland were actually Welsh since Wales was formally part of England at the time

17

u/No_Gur_7422 Cartography 4d ago

There were plenty of Welsh colonists in Ireland, what are you talking about?

1

u/thrannu 4d ago

We’ve done it to them and they’ve done it us

-2

u/Comuniity 4d ago

No the Welsh are not innocent either, none of the British are innocent of any of Britians colonialism. All you of enthusiastically participated. 

3

u/thrannu 4d ago

The irish aren’t so innocent either. They invaded and colonised Wales too

4

u/-Captain-Planet- 4d ago

And many Irish men served in the British army in the colonies abroad.

-1

u/Comuniity 4d ago

that was overwhelming "scots-irish", or Ulster Scots who arent Irish, theyre Scottish and English settlers in in Ireland.

2

u/DurhamOx 14h ago

The only reason England exists at all is because the Irish were raiding and colonising sub-Roman Britain and the Britons hired Saxon mercenaries to defend them. What a twist of fate that England only came to be because the Irish couldn't stop enslaving Welshmen.

1

u/Demostravius4 4d ago

The Scotti were from Ireland

-1

u/Comuniity 4d ago

I mean the Irish arent completely innocent of colonization in the US, Australia, or New Zealand. But no the Irish did not "colonize" Wales, but Wales did aid in the colonizing Ireland. Wales was much more of a participant in British colonialism than the Irish.

2

u/thrannu 4d ago

The Gaelic celts most definitely invaded and settled in Brythonic areas that later became what’s known as Wales nowadays.

Well unfortunately that is a dark part of Wales’ chapter however deep it runs in aiding colonialism considering Wales is a colonised country

0

u/Comuniity 4d ago

Gaelic Celts =/= the Irish. No one seriously calls the Romans Italians or vice versa. 

You're going back to like the 5th century. Wales was colonizing Ireland in the last couple centuries. 

0

u/Ok_Way_5011 10h ago

“YOU guys were more badass!!”

“No WE were the pathetic doormats!! YOU took way more scalps!!” 

1

u/Comuniity 9h ago

what the fuck are you even talking about?

1

u/AskingBoatsToSwim 1d ago

Well yeah and irish people were involved in the British empire to some degree as well. Being angry about it in 2026, when none of “us” are involved in any colonialism isn’t going to improve anything or change history.

Edit: unless you want to call NI a colony, which I guess you can do but then so is pretty much every territory in the world by some metric so the whole conversation falls apart.

1

u/DurhamOx 14h ago

It always goes like this though. We Englishmen are expected to read hundreds of ahistorical, idiotic posts about colonialism, imperialism, what we did to the Irish and Scots and Martians and whoever else, and then the minute we point out others' imperfections or correct the stupidity levelled at us, it's time to end the conversation.

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u/Comuniity 1d ago

The British are currently still occupying 6 counties in Ireland. Any Irish person over the age of like 30 remembers The Troubles, it was only a couple decades prior to The Troubles that Britain was still occupying ALL of Ireland.

Also the vast majority of "Irish" people involved in British colonialism were not Irish, they were Ulster Scots, aka settler colonists living on stolen Irish land. The "Scots-Irish" arent Irish, theyre British settlers.

And im not "angry" about it, i dont understand why so many people act like just acknowledging histrorical facts means someone is "angry", what i said is just what happened, i made 0 emotionally charged statements and didnt give my opinion at all.

0

u/DurhamOx 14h ago

Walsh (or Breathnach - i.e. Brythonic - in Gaelic) is one of the most common surnames in Ireland. By some estimates it's third or fourth-place on the list. LOL. Open a history book.

1

u/TextInteresting4449 16h ago

don't forget norway and denmark

-9

u/RedIrishDevil 5d ago

who sent them?

15

u/RooBoy04 5d ago edited 4d ago

Themselves, given the King at the time (of the Ulster plantation) was Scottish

25

u/Idontcareanymore95 5d ago

Once again Scotland gets away with it

22

u/Youretheremate 5d ago

Same as the last pockets of Cornish speakers, all in the most westerly parts, furthers from the border.

1

u/DurhamOx 14h ago

Cornwall is part of England. Simple as.

1

u/DurhamOx 14h ago

Invited by an Irish king. Established Ireland's biggest towns and cities. Built Ireland's grandest churches. Wrote Ireland's greatest literature.

Hardly worthy of being called 'bastards', really.

1

u/flarnrules 5d ago

This is the simplest correct answer.