... them with Irish as their first language. The state has anglicised the Gaeltacht by encouraging the immigration of English-speakers: Finland has laws to prevent Finnish-speakers settling on the Aaland Islands. These laws have been effective in preserving the Aalands as a Swedish-speaking community. Ireland has no such laws to protect Irish-speaking communities and that is the most important ... language. Finland also shows that a less thorough approach will fail. Swedish is an official language in Finland, and there are Swedish-speaking communities both on the mainland and on the Aaland ...

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