Irish is taught in school as a compulsary subject from the age of 5 until 17.  It's not spoken or used on a day to day basis in most of Ireland.  There are a few areas in the West of Ireland called The Gaeltacht (pronounced G-wale-tock-t) where Irish is the 1st language.  I used to attend mass through Irish in our local church which would have had people in the congregation speaking Irish to eachother before and after the mass.  Some schools teach their students through Irish.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde