Irish Keyboard OnlineMéarchlár Gaeilge

The 18 letters of Irish plus á é í ó ú, each on its own key, so Seán stays Seán and féar never turns into fear.

18 Native letters
1.8M Speakers
5 Special keys
0 / 5000
esc
Arabicالعربية
Amazighⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ
Amharicአማርኛ
ArmenianՀայերեն
Assameseঅসমীয়া
BelarusianБеларуская
Bengaliবাংলা
BulgarianБългарски
Burmeseမြန်မာဘာသာ
Chinese中文
CzechČeština
DanishDansk
Dhivehiދިވެހި
Egyptian Hieroglyphs𓂀
FilipinoWikang Filipino
FrenchFrançais
Georgianქართული
GermanDeutsch
GreekΕλληνικά
Gujaratiગુજરાતી
HausaHarshen Hausa
Hebrewעברית
Hindiहिन्दी
HungarianMagyar
IgboAsụsụ Igbo
IrishGaeilge
Japanese日本語
Kannadaಕನ್ನಡ
KazakhҚазақша
Khmerភាសាខ្មែរ
Korean한국어
Kurdishکوردی
Laoພາສາລາວ
MacedonianМакедонски
Malayalamമലയാളം
Marathiमराठी
🎮 Minecraft Enchantmentᔑ
MongolianМонгол
Nepaliनेपाली
NorwegianNorsk
Odiaଓଡ଼ିଆ
Pashtoپښتو
Persianفارسی
PolishPolski
PortuguesePortuguês
Punjabiਪੰਜਾਬੀ
RussianРусский
SerbianСрпски
Sindhiسنڌي
Sinhalaසිංහල
SomaliSoomaali
SwedishSvenska
Tamilதமிழ்
Teluguతెలుగు
Thaiภาษาไทย
Tigrinyaትግርኛ
TurkishTürkçe
UkrainianУкраїнська
Urduاردو
Uyghurئۇيغۇرچە
VietnameseTiếng Việt
YorubaYorùbá
# Special Characters
😊 Emoji
✨ Special
🔢 Numbers
Western
Symbols

Works with every app you love

Ready-Made Irish Combos

One click to insert — or copy straight to clipboard

Emoji mascot

How To Use

Three steps. Ten seconds.

Type

Type

Click the letters, or type on your own keyboard: on the Windows Irish layout, AltGr + a vowel gives á, é, í, ó or ú, and Shift makes it a capital.

1
Copy

Copy

Check the fadas and the mutations before you copy: fear or féar, i gCorcaigh with its small g and capital C.

2
Paste

Paste

Press Copy and paste into WhatsApp, email or a form: á, é, í, ó and ú arrive as themselves, not as plain vowels.

3

Irish Keyboard for Any App

Irish copied here keeps every síneadh fada and every mutation.

Snapchat

Snapchat

Snapchat: caption an Oíche Shamhna or Bealtaine snap with the fadas and the h of lenition in place.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp

WhatsApp: send Nollaig shona daoibh or Breithlá sona duit to the family group, spelled the way the Caighdeán writes it.

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram: a bio that reads Gráinne or Ciarán, not the fada-less version that booking forms leave behind.

TikTok

TikTok

TikTok: caption a seisiún or a hurling clip from i gCorcaigh with the small g and the capital C.

Free Irish Keyboard Online.
Type from any device — no download, no install.

100% free · 1.87 million speakers · All devices

Irish was printed in its own typeface for almost four hundred years. The first Gaelic type was cut in 1571 for a catechism commissioned by Elizabeth I. This cló Gaelach, with insular forms of letters such as r and s and a dot over a consonant to mark lenition (the ponc séimhithe), remained the normal type for Irish until the mid-20th century and was taught in schools until the 1960s. Modern spelling came from the new state: after 1922 every Act of the Oireachtas was translated into Irish, and the parliament’s translation service published a spelling handbook, Litriú na Gaeilge, in 1945, expanded it in 1947 and republished it in 1958 as An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the Official Standard, which was updated again in 2017. In Roman type the dot became a following h, so the traditional alphabet of 18 letters (a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u) and the síneadh fada on á é í ó ú now carry the whole language; j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z appear only in borrowed words. Irish is the national and first official language of Ireland and has been an official EU language since 1 January 2007, with full status since a translation derogation ended on 31 December 2021. The 2022 census counted 1,873,997 people who can speak Irish, but only 71,968 who speak it daily outside the education system.

In Irish the first letter of a word changes with the grammar. Lenition (séimhiú) adds an h after the first consonant and eclipsis (urú) writes another consonant in front of it, so “boat” appears as bád, bhád or mbád: a bhád is his boat, a bád her boat and a mbád their boat, and only the mutation tells them apart. After a preposition and the article, eclipsis is the rule: ar an mbóthar, on the road. The added letter stays lower case even before a capital, which is why place names read i gCorcaigh (in Cork) and i mBaile Átha Cliath (in Dublin), and why the people of Ireland are muintir na hÉireann. For search and spell-checking this means one word has several written shapes: a dictionary such as teanglann.ie has to send bhoird back to bord before it can find it.

Most Irish is typed on keyboards made for English. Ireland uses the UK-style QWERTY board, and Windows includes an Irish layout (KLID 00001809) that adds the fadas through AltGr: the right Alt key plus a vowel gives á, é, í, ó or ú, and AltGr with the apostrophe followed by a vowel works in programs that block the first method. Because the fada needs that extra key, it is often left out in chats, and many computer systems never accepted it. In 2018 University Hospital Galway told patient Ciarán Ó Cofaigh that its software could not store the fada in his name, and in 2019 the Data Protection Commissioner ruled that having a name spelled correctly in records was not an absolute right. In March 2026 Aer Lingus booking forms still rejected passenger names with a fada. The Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 now requires the IT systems public bodies use with the public to record a person’s name, address and title correctly in Irish, with the síneadh fada. A missing fada is not cosmetic: fear is a man and féar is grass, sean is old and Seán is a name. This keyboard gives á é í ó ú their own keys with capitals on Shift, so a message to the Gaeltacht areas of Galway, Mayo, Donegal, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Meath keeps every mark.

Words That Change Their First Letter

Irish marks grammar at the start of a word: an added h, an added consonant, or a small letter before a capital.

18 native lettersá é í ó úséimhiú + urústandard since 1958
Initial mutations

One boat, three spellings

bádbhádmbád

The first letter of an Irish word changes with the grammar. Lenition adds an h, eclipsis adds a letter in front, and the word for “his”, “her” and “their” is the same a: only the mutation tells them apart.

a bhád — his boat · a bád — her boat · a mbád — their boat
Small letter, then capital

A capital inside the word

gCmBhÉtA

When a name is eclipsed or takes a prefix, the added letter stays small and the capital stays put, so the capital lands in the middle of the word.

i gCorcaigh — in Cork · i mBaile Átha Cliath — in Dublin · muintir na hÉireann — the people of Ireland
Síneadh fada

The only accent, and it changes the word

áéíóú

Standard Irish uses one mark, the síneadh fada, to show a long vowel. Leaving it out turns one word into another.

fear — man · féar — grass · sean — old · Seán — a name
From dot to h

The dot that became an h

bhchmh

In the old Gaelic type, lenition was a dot written above the consonant, the ponc séimhithe. Roman type replaced the dot with a following h, and An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (1958) uses only the h.

bhád: in Gaelic type, a b with a dot above
FAQ

Frequently Asked
Questions

The traditional alphabet has 18 letters: a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u. j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z appear only in borrowed words; v is used in some long-established ones such as veain (van) and veidhlín (violin).
The acute accent on á, é, í, ó and ú. It marks a long vowel and is the only accent standard Irish uses.
Yes. fear means man and féar means grass; sean means old and Seán is the name John; cáca is cake, while caca is a form of cac, excrement.
On the Windows Irish layout, hold the right Alt key (AltGr) and press the vowel: AltGr + a gives á. Add Shift for Á. If a program blocks that, press AltGr + apostrophe, then the vowel.
Keyboards in Ireland are English QWERTY boards, so a fada takes an extra key, and many systems refused it. University Hospital Galway could not store the fada in Ciarán Ó Cofaigh’s name in 2018, and Aer Lingus booking forms rejected fadas in March 2026.
The Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 requires the IT systems public bodies use with the public to record a person’s name, address and title correctly in Irish, including the síneadh fada.
Lenition: an h added after the first consonant of a word. bád (boat) becomes bhád in a bhád, his boat.
Eclipsis: another consonant written in front of the first one. bád becomes mbád in a mbád, their boat, and after a preposition with the article: ar an mbóthar, on the road.
The eclipsing letter stays lower case and the name keeps its capital: i gCorcaigh (in Cork), i mBaile Átha Cliath (in Dublin), muintir na hÉireann (the people of Ireland), an tAthair Seán (Father Seán).
Mutations give one word several spellings: bord, bhoird and mbord are all forms of the word for table or board. A search for one shape can miss the others, which is why dictionaries such as teanglann.ie map mutated forms back to the headword.
Gaelic type, the typeface Irish was printed in from the first Gaelic font of 1571 until the mid-20th century. It was taught in schools until the 1960s and is now mostly decorative.
The ponc séimhithe, a dot above a consonant that marked lenition in Gaelic type. In Roman type it is written as a following h, so the dotted b of old print is bh today.
The Official Standard for written Irish. It began as the handbook Litriú na Gaeilge (1945), was expanded in 1947, republished as An Caighdeán Oifigiúil in 1958 and updated in 2017.
It depends on the dialect: Conas atá tú? in Munster, Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? in Connacht and Cad é mar atá tú? in Ulster.
Irish-speaking areas in counties Galway, Mayo, Donegal, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Meath. The 2022 census counted 20,261 daily Irish speakers there.
The 2022 census counted 1,873,997 people aged three and over who can speak Irish, 40% of that population. 71,968 speak it daily outside the education system.
Yes, since 1 January 2007. Until 31 December 2021 a derogation limited how much was translated; since 2022 Irish has the same status as the other official languages.
The Constitution makes Irish the national language and the first official language; English is the other official language.

Need Another Language?

Free Keyboards, All Online

View all
GermanDeutsch
Frenchfrançais
Polishpolski
Czechčeština
TurkishTürkçe
→
Discover all keyboards
 
How's your experience? 💬

Your feedback makes Kactyl better for everyone

★ ★ ★ ★ ★