Okay, it is the farther-forward sound I was thinking of! Nice. I'm always a little wary of applying what I know about Gàidhlig to Gaeilge, I don't want to make assumptions just because there's a closer relationship between the two languages

I really hate that the English all but killed Irish as a native language. Language is more than words, it's culture and a different perspective.

I agree completely. I can't help but admire how well Wales has managed to maintain Welsh under fairly similar circumstances. Scottish Gaelic is even closer to death, but we almost entirely did that to ourselves - or, we did it to what is now a collective "us" but was then a sharper line between Gaelic Highlanders and Germanic Lowlanders.

I have no Gaelic heritage myself, coming from the parts of Scotland that were never strongly Gaelic-speaking at any point in history, that now-collective us means it's still mine to do my little bit to save

I am quite pleased that there's enoigh similarity for me to have understood "tá brón orm" before you explained the differences to English