In Ireland we speak Irish. However the Irish one grows up speaking will vary based on location. A man from Donegal will have a different accent, pronunciation, and regional vocabulary than a Kerryman or a Dub. (Donegal Irish seems to be the closest to Scots Gaelic, by the way, and speakers of either tongue can usually understand one another without too much difficulty.) One of the problems facing the language in Ireland is the lack of a standard for the spoken language. Perhaps the most commonly encountered accent is that of "Dublin Irish" -- the ordinary accent of children learning Irish in the schools in and around The Fair City.

The greatest tragedy to befall the language, at least in my opinion, was the adoption of the 19th century practice of adding all sorts of "extra" letters as an aid to pronunciation-- early, and by that I mean "pure", written Irish was a sophisticated and elegantly written language, unlike the ugly assembly of letters one sees today.