Quote Originally Posted by thanmuwa View Post
I think we will have to agree to disagree on the accuracy and significance of your numbers.
We may disagree on the significance of the numbers, but the accuracy is beyond refute, or parsing.

However, more to the point:

Quote Originally Posted by thanmuwa View Post
There are three dialects of Irish.
Well, technically yes. However the most widely encountered dialect is that version of Irish spoken in the greater Dubln area, where between one third and one half of all children learning Gaelic in school live, work, and play. Just as there is a vast difference between the English spoken in Cork and Dublin, so too has "Dublin Irish" developed its own peculiar dialect-- which drives the "proper" Gaelic speakers nuts. It's not that the kids aren't instructed in one of the three approved dialects, it's that they don't pick it up-- it doesn't sink in-- they still sound like "Dubs", and as far as they're concerned, that's an end to it. They don't want what they perceive to be a culchie accent when they speak Irish.

And frankly, most of them don't want to learn the language, which I view as a pity.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread on the language of the Scots... because "The Irish Question" has reached the point where it is even boring to my dog.