On Saturday 1 January 2022, the Irish language has achieved full status as an official language of the European Union.
From today, all documents published by the EU will now be translated into Irish. Irish has been used officially in the EU since 2007 with only limited material published through Irish by the EU Institutions.
Ireland's President, Michael D Higgins, welcomed what he called a "significant day" for the Irish language and said that it was an important recognition at international level of "our specific identity as a people with a distinctive language of our own that we use alongside all the other languages we use and respect".
Ireland's Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, acknowledged that 2022 is the 50th anniversary of when Ireland signed the Treaty of Accession to the European Communities.
