The answer is easily I'm afraid. IDEALLY we'd all be speaking Irish, the scottish would be speaking Scottish & Welsh speaking Welsh. History has taken that away. Yes, it would be great if all Irish spoke fluent Irish, but the English ban stopped this being so & made it a second language here & in our Gaelic cousin's countries.

You are not thinking clearly & infact being prejudiced when you rant on about 'you can only be Irish if you speak Irish'. You're Irish by decent & bloodline aswell as nationality. There's a large minority of Protestants up north want to be Irish & Im happy to call them so. Their ancestral paths go back to Scotland. If they want to join us in a united Ireland I'll be the first to welcome them here. Presbyterian's of Scottish decent actually have had a very large part in getting an independant Ireland. Some learned Irish but most stayed with their born tongue, from Wolf Tone to Arthur Griffith to Joseph Plunkett (unsure).

By saying that you are the one looking ignorant I'm afraid. And might I say a tad petty?