Although I am of sufficient Irish descent to get a passport, I don't feel qualified to make more than this one comment. Jim is absolutely right, in my view, when he refers to "Irish culture, north and south is based on the Irish language".

This is, on both sides, about personal sense of identity. The number of people who speak Irish, and how good they are at it, is irrelevant, since it is about how people see themselves, not proving the accuracy of that perception.