Inis Oírr & "Munster Irish"

gaiscioch

Interesting article on The Irish Times today: Irish language is far from dead, linguist claims

"That “playing” includes allowing people to choose their own dialect – as happened with the southernmost island of Inis Oírr, which opted to speak Munster Irish, despite its neighbours Inis Mór and Inis Meáin opting for the Connacht version."

Can somebody explain how this "opting" happened and over what time period. I suspect "Clare Irish" would be more accurate than "Munster Irish". If so, is Inis Oírr Irish officially classed as the last remaining living dialect of Clare Irish? (If I recall, for the English Clare was part of Connacht until the early 17th century, when they moved it into their definition of Munster, a definition which we've held on to.)

AnLonDubh

Inis Oírr is a form of Clare Irish, not Galway Irish and is indeed the last variant of the dialect.