Ireland from a Polish perspective

In his posts from July 2006 Krystian brooded over the traditional Irish music he had the chance to listen to while being in Ireland. To cut a long story short, he found the tunes brilliant, marked by the singer's lilting voices. As I myslef listened to some Irish folk songs a while ago, I can only wholeheartedly agree with him. Of course, nothing can beat the experience of listening to Irish music in an Irish pub:

The other object he brought up in his entries ties in just perfectly with the radio programme I listened to and commented on during the weekend. It is about the Irish Gaelic language.

Contrary to the radio programme, Krystian said that the Irish find the Gaelic language an unnecessary affair, and consequently, don't use it in their daily lives. The programme, on the other hand, emphasised the renaissance of interest in the Irish Gaelic language mostly due to the Gaelic media. So, as you can see, opinions are polarised here. What Krystian and the guests in the radio programme agree on, though, is that language is the main ingredient of a country's identity.

Here are also excerpts from a book about the Celtic languages and their survival I found on the Web:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-7902%28195902%2943%3A2%3C79%3AWTSTCF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4&size=LARGE