Learning how to speak as Gaeilge as a foreigner?

Hi all I'm a foreigne living in Dublin for 2 years now. I do have a linguistics background so I am always interested in learning new languages. In fact when I first came here I was frantically practicing Irish on duolingo. But much to my disappointment nobody actually really speaks it. So far in my 2 years I've literally heard people speak Irish with each other in only 3 places: the three Aran Islands. Even on my trips to Connemara I heard absolutely nobody speak it at all. I mean of course I knew that Irish wasn't the first language here but I'd think that at least people would speak it like at home or in like villages in the streets, just like we would speak our regional dialects in the villages in the Netherlands (while we'd speak standard Dutch in work, at school, for more official stuff etc.)

I was wondering how it'd be received in Ireland if a foreigner was learning Irish. Would Dubs who have almost no Irish whatsoever be angry at the sanctimonious foreigner speaking Irish? I've also heard there's a lot of nationalism in the Irish speaking community which is not something I'd feel comfortable getting involved in as a foreigner really.

Would having some documented Irish proficiency also be of any use in the job market as a foreigner? I'm in IT so I'd think not right. (not a dealbreaker by the way)

I've so far seen courses at ucd and gaelchultur for learning irish in weekly evening classes, which is not unaffordable for me, so I might be looking into getting started there. But if everybody is going to hate my guts for it I might as well skip it you see.