The Canadian Oak said:
the north is ruled by england where the south is a free state,much better imho
and what that says regular is Eire Go Bragh -meaning Ireland forever
Gaelic is the celtic language,I believe the Irish and Scots have gaelic as their language and possibly the welsh,not sure about that one,but there are some differences between Scot gaelic and Irish
The South is a Republic, not a free state. Has been a republic since 1949. We have a constitution, have done so since 1937, with president etc.
Irish (ie Gaelic) is one of the official languages. Most people don't speak it much. There are bilingual areas (I'm from a bilingual area, irish is one of my native languages). Most people's first language is English.
Scots Gaelic is a bit different, but if they speak it slowly I can understand it. However, other than in the Western Isles, no-one really speaks Scots Gaelic much. They also speak a variety of Old Norse, called Doric, around Aberdeen and Dundee, apparently. A dutch friend of mine can understand it.
The "north" has been part of the UK since about 1800. The treaty the Irish signed with the UK in 1923 stated that the rest of ireland could be a free state if the British could keep the 6 counties in the north (these were a nice moneyspinner back then, all that weaving and ship building). A lot of the folks in these counties are of Scottish origin and were threatening heavy shit if they were forced to be part of the "free state". It's a long, messy story and I GUARANTEE that if I start discussing it on here with other irish folks we will start screeching insults at one another. There was a civil war over ceding the 6 counties to the UK after the infamous "treaty". Anyway, the North is part of the UK still and the Republic is not.
The North is quite poor and has a high level of unemployment. There has been a lot of nasty terrorist violence up there for years and people are pretty damn stressed as a result. However, there are some things that make it worth a visit, the giant's causeway, a natural lava "stalagmite" "roadway" is pretty damn impressive, for instance.
Americans and Canadians can happily wander all over the North as the folks there have zero interest in giving tourists a hard time. Your religion is only a factor if you are from Ireland or the UK.