I think Joyce was able to transcend nationalism both British and Irish and send it up beautifully in his work - look at the way he has the term 'West Briton' hissed in The Dead, and his handling of the Cyclops episode of Ulysses. I would find it hard to believe that Joyce was unable to learn Irish as he seems to have had a natural ear. Both James and Nora seemed as comfortable conversing in French or Italian as in English during their sojourns in Trieste and Paris, while the Wake reveals an extraordanary love of language and a remarkable vocabulary.