I actually see connaught stranger's point about the oath. Anything that needs to be clear to everyone (such as what number you are when sizing off, otherwise people might not have the foggiest notion if they're odd or even) should be done in the vernacular language. Jeez, even the catholic church copped on to that one!
As far as people not knowing how to count to 100 in Irish, why would they? We take non-nationals and there is no educational requirement for joining. That means no requirement for Irish to be known. People get exempt from Irish in school too for all sorts of reasons and if they have been exempt it usually means that even the dept. of education think it's too much to expect them to learn a foreign language for whatever reason! And btw, Irish is as foreign as French or German when it comes down to it because it's not your everyday language and you have to learn it from scratch.
For the record, I have no issues with Irish.
As far as people not knowing how to count to 100 in Irish, why would they? We take non-nationals and there is no educational requirement for joining. That means no requirement for Irish to be known. People get exempt from Irish in school too for all sorts of reasons and if they have been exempt it usually means that even the dept. of education think it's too much to expect them to learn a foreign language for whatever reason! And btw, Irish is as foreign as French or German when it comes down to it because it's not your everyday language and you have to learn it from scratch.
For the record, I have no issues with Irish.
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