“Irish is a part of our soul; without it we are without identity, we are empty,” declared Irene Coen of the Dingle peninsula. In fact, the Irish people’s deep love of their indigenous language, Gaelige, which was nearly exterminated by the English, has fueled one of the few successful language revitalization projects in Europe. In this course we examine the nexus of Irish language, culture, and identity in Eire after the island's 1922 partition into the English-occupied state of Northern Ireland and the independent country Ireland. We dip our toes into the complexities of the Irish language, then explore the Irish people’s own understanding of their Celtic identity in the realms of sports, politics, and economics, from Druidism to Catholicism to the rise of the Celtic Tiger.