Wales is like Ireland should/could have been

Why and when should the UK have tried to colonise the Dutch?

I think there are two huge differences between the welsh and irish language situations.

The first is that Irish is no longer a community language (including in the gaeltacht areas) - google translate this article to english if you want an example of the current state of play for a couple trying to raise their children through Irish. TL;DR - English is the language of the playground; the number of families raising their kids through Irish in Gaeltacht areas is below 30%.

Whereas in North Wales it is a community language. Totally different story and the educational approach reflects this. I think Irish people are too harsh on themselves and on the education system. Learning any language to fluency from a textbook is tough going requiring thousands of hours of practice outside of the classroom. This isn't realistic by the time most people leave school but they can learn the basics in that time. That's not bad going for a national programme that caters for everyone without an exemption.

The second major difference between Irish and Welsh is that Irish is not a regional language. There is no part of Ireland (in the republic anyway) where Irish is unwelcome or not considered our language. I gather that is not the case with Welsh and is certainly not the case with Scots Gaelic.

So I think that makes Irish probably unique in the world; 100 years of langauge policy has made Irish the language equivalent of the good room. We don't use it but we don't want to lose it either.

Not a great situation, but not a total disaster either. It just means that you won't find an opportunity to order a pint in Irish anywhere in Ireland (in the near future anyway) but you will have lots of opportunities to speak it with interested people anywhere in Ireland and enjoy interesting content.

Ireland gave us Rory Gallagher. Wales gave us Shakin Stevens.

Wales gave us Lost Prophets, featuring Ian Watkins. I rest my case.

The colonised mind is a terrible affliction.

I love Wales. I love the Welsh language(I can speak it). I love the scenery of North Wales including Snowdonia. Despite what a previous poster said, Plaid Cymru has not just got traction in recent years - its support has been very strong at various times over the past 40 years. Welsh, like Irish, has regional accents too - South Wales Welsh is quite different to North Wales Welsh. Plenty of 'chapel'- goers in Wales - my friends were 'Calvinistic Methodists ' which amazed me as I, as a young person, thought Calvin was only in a school history book!

Haven't been back to Wales in c12 years but the standard of hotel at that stage was incredibly poor in Comparison to Irish hotels. Despite that, I love it.