Background on the Deaf Community

The Irish Deaf community has its own culture and language and holds an active place within Irish culture.   There are an estimated 16,500 ISL users in Ireland.   ISL is the indigenous language of the Irish Deaf Community.   It has existed in Ireland for generations and is regarded as the preferred language of the Irish Deaf community on this island of Ireland.   The Deaf community is campaigning for official government recognition of ISL.   It has been accepted now since the 1960’s through worldwide research, that sign languages are genuine languages with complex linguistic structures.   ISL is no exception; it has its own syntax and morphology and has all the linguistic components of any spoken language.   ISL differs from fingerspelling/signing (spelling, using the hands of vocabulary, nouns, etc).   The hands, eyes, shoulders, movements of the head and facial expressions, are the articulators of sign languages.