Occasional court and medical interpreting for Irish (Gaeilge) speakers, matched to Munster, Connacht or Ulster dialect, plus certified translation of register entries, wills and recordings.
Prism Linguistics provides Irish-language (Gaeilge) interpreters for court hearings, recorded-evidence reviews and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, usually by phone or by video, matched to Munster, Connacht or Ulster dialect, together with certified English translation of register entries, wills and Irish-language recordings for estate, genealogy and citizenship files.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Irish here means Irish Gaelic, the Gaeilge of Ireland, and not the English spoken there; the Scottish language is a separate matter and lives on our Gaelic page. Nearly every Irish speaker is fluent in English as well, so the honest starting point is that most people who contact us need a translator rather than an interpreter, and the interpreting requests that do come are deliberate ones. Our office is in New York and the work is national, handled in person where that makes sense and by phone or video where it does not.
Almost every Irish speaker also speaks English, so be clear about why the interpreter is needed. At the 2022 census roughly 20,000 people used Irish daily in the Gaeltacht, and effectively all of them are bilingual, which means the demand is never about general comprehension. It is about a specific choice: a party who elects to give evidence in Irish, a recording or an earlier statement that has to be rendered, an older Gaeltacht relative who is simply more precise in the language they grew up with.
When that choice is made, dialect matters. Munster, Connacht and Ulster Irish part company in pronunciation and vocabulary, so we ask which part of the country the speaker comes from before we assign. It is a short question that saves a long argument later.
No state runs a court certification exam in Irish, so a court works from a qualified Irish interpreter, usually joining by phone or video given how few assignments arise. The realistic scenario is a witness or party who chooses to testify in Irish, or a hearing where a recording or a piece of earlier testimony is in the language and has to reach the record accurately. We take the booking from the court or the attorneys, and we are a private agency rather than a court-appointed vendor. Tell us the dialect region and the format and we confirm what we can field.
A provider that takes federal funding has to supply an Irish interpreter at no cost if a patient asks for one, even though the patient could usually manage in English. The reason to ask is precision: an elderly Gaeltacht speaker describing symptoms, or a consent discussion where the exact word counts, is often clearer in Irish. These requests are uncommon and we are candid about that, but where one comes we match the dialect and, for most purposes, connect by video.
Because Irish interpreting is occasional and the qualified interpreters are few, most of it is handled remotely, and that is usually the practical choice rather than a fallback. A scheduled video session covers a hearing or a recorded-evidence review, and phone suits a shorter call. Remote work also lets us reach the interpreter whose dialect fits the speaker without waiting for anyone to travel. We settle the platform and the timing in advance so the session runs cleanly.
Irish civil registration runs in both English and Irish, and most certificates need no translation because the entries are already in English. The ones that do come from Gaeltacht families and from people who chose to register in Irish, and they carry a recurring trap: the person is Seán Ó Briain on the register and John O'Brien on the passport, one individual under two names. We translate the Irish entries in full, spell each name to match the passport and note the Irish form shown on the record so an adjudicator can connect them. The other Irish work is not certificates at all. It is transcription and translation of Irish-language recordings, letters and wills for estate, genealogy and citizenship-by-descent files, each delivered with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. The full service is at certified translation.
Tell us the date, the city and the setting, or send a clear scan of the document. We reply with a fixed price and, for interpreting, a named linguist. Call +1 (833) 282 8883, email info@prismlinguistics.com, or use the quote form and you will hear back within 60 minutes during business hours.
Our only office is in New York, and our Irish interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Irish work is concentrated; the full list of 288 cities is below it.
Prism Linguistics is rated 4.6 out of 5 across 67 client reviews for its interpreting and translation work in the United States. That is the company-wide figure; we do not publish a separate rating per language because there is no honest way to measure one. If an Irish assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.