Madam, - Will everyone please stop complaining about the need to preserve the Irish language, and just get on with making it easier to use?
Unfortunately, in an English-speaking country, Irish is now a minority sport. And, like all such pastimes, it has been seized on and specialised by the few to the detriment of the many.
I have lived in Ireland for eight years (I'm from Australia) and I find Irish very difficult. It's illogical, tricky to spell and almost impossible to pronounce. It is, in these respects, just like English. But English is the modern language of culture, communication, business and success, while Irish, unfortunately, has become a historical rant of separateness and special pleading.
I am not yet convinced that enough people really want to use it generally every day. Like healthy eating, regular exercise and a low blood-alcohol level, for most people speaking Irish is a "nice to try eventually", rather than a "must do right now".
Ireland is no longer a place where you can pretend that, by speaking a special language, you stay somehow better than the neighbours. Also, the Gaeilgeoir set must accept that too many generations suffered at school while learning Irish. Grammar beatings no longer exist in the classroom, but they still, unfortunately, exist in many people's minds.
May I make three suggestions? First, establish a national academy to rescue the language. It should simplify Irish by casting out ancient spellings and make words easy to read and say.
Second, decide which dialect of Irish is "the mainstream".
Third, stop giving the oxygen of publicity to language-loonies.
Most people don't give a hoot about what linguists want. Languages are living things. Let people enjoy playing with Irish, rather than always feeling nervous about "correct usage".
Keeping things simple is what matters. The easier it is to gain Irish, the more we'll have a go at it. - Yours, etc,