Can you order dinner in Irish in Ireland? A blogger's experiment that went viral
How easy is it to use the native language in a country where it has official status? An Irish blogger decided to test this through his own experience, launching an unusual challenge: he started calling local takeaways and trying to order food exclusively in Irish (Gaeilge), to find out if he would eventually succeed in placing such an order.
The author of the experiment is Dublin-based blogger Jonathan Finlay, better known on social networks by the pseudonym Nasti (nasti_2k). The main themes of his content are food, along with football and Irish culture. Even before the language experiment, Finlay gained fame through his fast food reviews and unusual food combinations.
In August 2026, he launched a new series: to call different restaurants and takeaways every day and try to order food in the Irish language, until one day his order is finally accepted.
The experiment quickly went viral. The first six videos in the series alone garnered about 11 million views in a few days.
Each time the man calls a new catering establishment, but does not reveal its name. In this way, the blogger does not want to attract negative attention to specific restaurants and takeaways.
His list of orders is varied: from classic burgers, pizza, and fried chicken to fish and chips and the popular Irish "spice bag" — a spicy mix of potatoes and chicken, usually prepared in local Chinese takeaways.
The blogger's tactic is simple and consistent. When someone answered the phone, he politely greeted them in Irish and stated his order. However, in almost all cases, the reaction was the same — complete incomprehension.
If the employees ask again, the man patiently repeats the same phrase in Irish. Sometimes the phone is handed over to colleagues in the hope that they will understand the strange customer, but more often than not, the conversation ends with the interlocutor simply hanging up.
The most curious and at the same time saddest incident occurred on the tenth day of the experiment. While trying to order a "spice bag," the blogger encountered an irritated employee.
Blogger: Hello, can I get a spice bag, please?
Employee: Excuse me?
Blogger: Can I get a spice bag, please?
Employee: Listen, I'm not in the mood for jokes today.
Blogger (switching to English): I just wanted to know if you have anyone who speaks Irish?
Employee: No, no, we don't speak French.
Blogger: That's actually Irish.
Employee: I know you're trying to speak Irish there, but we don't speak [it], we speak French.
Blogger: Okay. No problem. Thank you very much.
Employee: Okay, bye.
Jonathan recorded a separate video where he responded to some comments and explained the goal of his challenge.
To one of the frequent comments, "Why call Chinese takeaways and expect them to know Irish?", the author remarked: "I don't name the establishments in the video, but it's clear that many of these people have a clear Dublin accent." As an example, he cited the woman's phrase from the last dialogue.
But for him, that's not the main point at all: he knows many people who are not from Ireland themselves but have learned and speak Irish. Therefore, a person's origin has nothing to do with it.
Some users advised him to go to Galway — a region in the west of the country where the Irish language is more widespread. To which the blogger noted:
"I'm from Dublin (…) I don't want to just order in one part of Ireland. I want to be able to order all over Ireland, including where I'm from and what I'm proud of."
Separately, the blogger emphasized that he absolutely did not intend to mock service employees.
"The goal of this series is not to make fun of people, but to invite as many people as possible into our culture," he noted.
The experiment is still ongoing.
The Irish language has the status of the first official language in the state, but in everyday life, it significantly lags behind English — which displaced it even when Ireland was dependent on Britain. According to the 2022 census, about 1.87 million people — approximately 40% of the population — stated that they had some degree of proficiency in Irish, but fewer than 200,000 people speak it fluently.
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