Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. However, it is spoken by just 1.4 per cent of the population on a daily basis outside of the educational system (Central Statistics Office 2023). Irish is taught as a compulsory subject to students in three educational contexts: English-medium, Irish-medium, and Gaeltacht (Irish heartland areas) schools. The education system was given a key role in the revival of Irish when the Irish Free State was established in 1922 and the policy enjoyed some initial success. We argue that the policy was too narrowly focussed and had unrealistic expectations given the amount of instructional time and lack of exposure to Irish outside the school. We critically analyse key studies on the teaching and learning of Irish conducted in primary schools. A common theme that emerges from the studies is the success of immersion approaches to Irish and the disappointing outcomes where Irish is taught as a subject. If the education system in Ireland is to reach its potential in terms of Irish language achievement, then it needs to be transformed by increasing the intensity of exposure to Irish to take full advantage of an early start to language learning.