It's almost exactly the same with Scottish Gaelic. Native speakers are few, but there's a vibrant community of learners.

I belong to a small message board mostly made up of very sophisticated, intelligent Brits and Irish. I once asked the Irish lads about the state of their ancestral tongue, and the response was pretty depressing. None of them could sense a "resurgence". Despite their obvious pride in being Irish, none of them had particularly strong feelings about the language, including one poster for whom it is the mother tongue. They all seemed to agree that compulsory study left most people with a resentment of the language and should be abandonded. I've recently posted the Chicago Tribune link and the McCloskey piece and have gotten little interest, but I will report back if anyone says anything of note.

All that being said, I'll believe McCloskey. Data and scholarship trump anecdotes, and anyway, his observations are less depressing. Moreover, he's not the only one who has come to the same conclusion. McCloskey's argument that the hard-core fluent areas are static or dying, but that the influence of the language is actually spreading, is similar to that of another Irish expert, Jonathan Fishman. Here's an excerpt from a 1996 speech (full link below):

"So, what have they accomplished, those Irish revivalists whom I have studied for such a long time? Can you imagine, in seventy-five years of work, which is longer than most of you have worked on this problem by a long shot, they have gone from a time when five percent of the Irish population was Irish mother-tongue to a time when three percent is Irish mother-tongue. After having tried everything that you are ever likely to think of. But, by this time, two-thirds of the population understands Irish, which was not the case at that earlier time. Two-thirds of it have been strongly influenced by all these things that the revivalists did, even though few of them ever actually speak the language. Irish would be in even worse condition had the revivalists not done all they did.

The Irish revivalists have voluntary neighborhoods in which all community services and all community informal life is in Irish. They are involved in a constant outreach effort (through clubs, camps, vacation spots, and teams) toward the appreciation and understanding of the Irish language. And that is why there are two-thirds of them now in the country who when they go to France and do not want to be mistaken for an Englishman, talk Irish to each other in a Paris cafe , even though they do not do it when they get back to Dublin. They could, but they do not. Their life has not changed that way. So, can anyone doubt that Irish today would be dead as a vernacular had it not been for the insistence of the stubborn revivalists that they wanted it for themselves and their children, regardless of what other Irish folk say, regardless of what other Irish folks do."

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/stabilize/conclusion.htm

O'Siadhial's "Learning Irish" is easily one of the best language-learning books I've come across - at least for learners like me who desire phonetic descriptions in IPA (or close) combined with competent descriptions of grammatical features, and (significantly for people who've learned a random mishmashed assortment of dialects at school) a clear focus on one variety of the language. His "Modern Irish" is fascinating too. As someone who has been taught Irish since age five or so, but never quite felt able as a user of the language, his books are really a revelation.

The possible death of Gaeltacht Irish is utterly depressing, but not completely discouraging; If Irish gains a foothold around Gaelschoil pupils and adult learners, the language might be saved from the fate of being confined to short stretches of the western coast.

I overheard a conversation in a in Dingle this autumn; A man talking, in Irish, to a teenage girl. After a while he switches to English: "And what will you study in university?". She: "English". He frowns and pauses while thinking, and finally asks: "And what use is that?". Laughter all round :).

___________"Is maith an scéalaí an aimsir."

Time is a good messenger
or "time will tell..."

An scéalaí – a story teller or messenger
An aimsir – the weather

And in "my" (Connemara) dialect that would be pronounced "is MWAH SHKAY-lee NAM-sheer."

I suspect this kind of thing is actually happening a lot. Navajo kids who start learning Dine in kindergarden and speak an English calque is something I heard about back in the early 90s. Now, I'm hearing similar stories for Plains Cree, Lakhota, Mikmaq and even for languages like Chippewyan. Mikmaq hieroglyphs are even making a comeback. In Europe, I'm hearing talk of Dutchized versions of Limburgish, mixed Platt-German hybrids and resurgence of Occitan, Wallon and even Provençal from people who speak it as if it was French.

People like having a language that reflects a non-mainstream identity nowadays. I even find myself regretting that I can't speak Plautdietsch.

The future of Irish Gaelic does not look promising at all. There has never been a language in history that has been successfully resuscitated when fewer than 1% of the population speaks it well.

It is disappointing that both the Scotts and the Irish have neglected learning their native languages in contrast to French and Dutch speakers who have actually felt almost as much pressure from English.

Dia duit! Is mise Sinisa (Sinisha). I as an tSeirbia. Tá beagán Gaelige agam. Is runai mé.
I will write in English now. I am Serbian, interprter and I speak 7 languages. I'm trying to lear Irish and some other Celtic languages. I think that are extraordinary languages...
In brief, the future of the Irish and other Celtic langugaes depends only of Irish and other Celtic nations.

Slan go foill!

:::French and Dutch speakers who have actually felt almost as much pressure from English.:::

A more accurate comparison would be Native American languages or perhaps Maori in New Zealand, languages regarding which there were very definitive and direct political campaigns to abolish. Irish has an incredible resiliance considering the campaigns to ensure it not be passed to the next generation.

Is fearr Gaeilge briste na Bearla cliste !

Beatha agus slainte chugat !

Ta agam Gaeilge beag anois ni raibh geileadh. Okay, Okay, this is probably not quite correct, but I hope that I have made my point.