 Two main languages are spoken in Ireland : Irish and English . Both languages have widely contributed to literature . Irish , now a minority but official language of the Republic of Ireland , was the vernacular of the Irish people for over two thousand years and was probably introduced by some sort of proto @-@ Gaelic migration during the Iron Age , possibly earlier . It began to be written down after Christianisation in the 5th century and spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man where it evolved into the Scottish Gaelic and Manx languages respectively . 
