[APG Public List] Irish as mother tongue

[LBoswell]

In the period circa 1800, in Irish townlands,  for Catholics, would Irish be 
predominantly the language spoken ?  If so was it predominant through the 
Famine period?   It concerns how a given name was pronounced (or interpreted 
by a native speaker).  I seem to see some evidence of written English 
throughout the period, but could have been the hedge schoolmaster's hand.

Larry