{"id":3983,"date":"2020-01-10T16:33:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T16:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2022-02-26T12:40:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T12:40:37","slug":"are-there-more-orangemen-than-fluent-irish-speakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/peace\/are-there-more-orangemen-than-fluent-irish-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Are there more Orangemen than fluent Irish speakers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2017-18 Continuous Household Survey indicates there are an estimated 35,955 persons with conversational fluency of Irish, and the current Grand Secretary of the Orange Order has said that it has \u201caround 40,000\u201d members. However, the Order membership figure is unverifiable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On 7 January 2020, during a BBC Talkback episode<\/a> (22:18), Tim Cairns stated, \u201cThere\u2019s more Orangemen in Northern Ireland than there are fluent Irish speakers.\u201d Tim Cairns was a former special advisor to the minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Jonathan Bell (Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)). Cairns remark was made in a discussion about the political negotiations to restore the devolved administration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and on the issue of Irish language rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Membership of the Orange Order<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grand Lodge of Ireland describes<\/a> itself as a \u201cProtestant fraternity\u201d. When contacted by FactCheckNI, the Orange Order explained that the membership of the movement is not centrally recorded. The Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, Reverend Mervyn Gibson, stated on 7 January 2020 that membership of the organisation was \u201caround 40,000<\/a>\u201d. On 15 September 2012, the News Letter reported that former Grand Secretary Drew Nelson said that there were 34,000 members<\/a>. The exact figure for Orange membership is unverifiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish speakers in Northern Ireland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department for Communities (DfC) collects data on knowledge and use of Irish<\/a>, through the Continuous House Survey<\/a>. The most recent available DfC bulletin covers years 2017-18<\/a>. Respondents were asked about their level of speaking Irish, which is summarised in the following table (for population estimations, we used the mid-year estimates for 2017<\/a> (published 28 June 2018)):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents aged 3 and over (mid-2017 estimate)<\/b><\/td>Do not speak any Irish<\/b><\/td>Speak Irish<\/b><\/td>Complicated conversation<\/b><\/td>Everyday conversation<\/b><\/td>Simple sentences<\/b><\/td>Single words or simple phrases<\/b><\/td><\/tr>
1,797,764<\/td>1,653,943<\/td>143,821<\/td>0<\/td>35,955<\/td>53,933<\/td>53,933<\/td><\/tr>
 <\/td>92%<\/td>8%<\/td>0%<\/td>2%<\/td>3%<\/td>3%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: DfC<\/a>; NISRA<\/a>; manual calculations (with rounding). NB. \u201cPercentages less than 0.5% are represented by \u20180\u2019 and where there are no responses this is represented by \u2018-\u2019.\u201d (DfC)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DfC bulletin defines levels of speaking Irish<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n