Short answers, pulled from the story.
Primitive Irish inscriptions from the 4th century AD mark the earliest written evidence of this Celtic language. These carvings appear throughout Ireland and along the west coast of Great Britain using a unique script called Ogham.
Eight hundred thousand monoglot Irish speakers existed around 1800 but numbers dropped to 320,000 by the end of the famine. By 1911 fewer than 17,000 remained.
Three major dialect areas survive today coinciding roughly with provinces of Connacht Munster and Ulster. Connacht Irish represents the westernmost remnant once stretching across from central Ireland to the Liffey estuary while Munster Irish covers Gaeltacht areas in Cork Kerry and Waterford counties.
Northern Ireland received royal assent for recognition bill on the 6th of December 2022 making Irish an official language alongside English.
The Gaelic League established itself in 1893 under Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde to encourage daily use of Irish. The organization hosted conversation meetings and published An Claidheamh Soluis newspaper within four years.