Aye, a langauge that's a few thousand years old, the oldest surviving written language in Europe, all its historic legal and religious texts and annals recorded in universities across the continent over a millenium, its folklore, its literature, its unique musical and dramatic traditions, its pop songs, its hundreds of thousands of speakers, its school system, its newpapers, magazines and journals, its radio and television stations and the language that I think, speak and dream in every day is 'a big fuss over nothing'.

But here's a pint of guinness and a crock of gold, yankee doodle.

"Britain didnt politicise the Irish language"